INTERNATIONAL  EDUCATION  SERIES 


SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION 

A  COMMENTARY  ON 

FEOEBEL'S   '^MOTHER  PLAY" 


BY 

SUSAN   E.  BLOW 


^^   OF  TB^^\ 

[niri7BE 


NEW    YORK 
D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 

1894 


s* 


Copyright,  1894, 
•   By  D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY. 


Electbotyped  and  Printed 

AT  THE  ApPLETON  PrESS,  U.  S.  A. 


TO 

THE  SISTER 

WHO  HAS  TAUGHT  ME  TO  UNDERSTAND  A  MOTHER'S  LOVE 

AND  BLESSED  ME  WITH  A  DAUGHTER'S  CONFIDENCE 

I  DEDICATE  THIS  BOOK 


Dasz  sie  die  Kinder  erziehen  Konnten 
Miiszten  die  Miitter  seyn  wie  Enten: 
Sie  schwammen  mit  ihrcr  Brut  in  Ruh; 
Da  gehort  aber  freilich  Wasser  dazu. 

Goethe. 


fIJKI7EE3IT 

EDITOE'S  PEEFACE. 


The  kindergarten  constantly  gains  ground 
in  tlie  United  States  as  well  as  in  Europe.  In 
1892  an  inquiry  sent  out  from  the  Bureau  of 
Education  obtained  information  of  the  existence 
of  2,000  private  kindergartens  and  459  public 
kindergartens.  Of  the  former,  1,148  failed  to  re- 
spond to  the  inquiry  sent  them.  The  852  private 
kindergartens  that  reported  had  1,602  teachers 
and  33,637  pupils.  The  459  public  kindergartens 
reported  933  teachers  and  31,659  pupils  enrolled 
during  the  year.  The  returns  showed  a  total  of 
nearly  2,500  kindergartens,  with  an  enrollment, 
of  65,296  pupils  in  the  1,311  that  reported. 

According  to  the  reports  from  year  to  year 
there  were  in  1873,  so  far  as  could  be  learned,  42 
kindergartens,  73  teachers,  1,252  pupils. 

Five  years  later  (1878)  these  had  increased  to 
159  kindergartens,  376  teachers,  4,797  pupils. 

In  1882  there  were  reported  348  kindergar- 
tens, 814  teachers,  16,916  pupils. 


viii  EDITOR'S  PKEFACE. 

In  1888,  521  kindergartens,  1,202  teachers,  31,- 
227  pupils. 

In  1892,  as  above  stated,  reports  were  received 
from  1,311  kindergartens  having  2,535  teachers 
and  65,296  pupils,  and  the  addresses  of  nearly  as 
many  more  were  obtained  which  failed  to  make 
reports  when  asked.*  It  may  be  safe  to  estimate 
the  number  of  kindergartens  at  3,000,  the  teach- 
ers at  5,000,  the  pupils  at  100,000. 

The  advent  of  the  kindergarten  in  the  educa- 
tional system  of  this  country  has  more  signifi- 
cance than  the  above  statistics  would  indicate; 
for  the  kindergarten  brings  with  it  a  new  leaven, 
so  to  speak,  that  is  destined  to  leaven  the  whole 
lump.  It  inspires  its  teachers  with  the  true  mis- 
sionary spirit,  to  devote  themselves  to  the  work 
of  unfolding  the  self -activity  of  humanity  in  its 
feeblest  and  most  rudimentary  stage  of  growth. 
In  proportion  to  the  maturity  of  the  human  be- 
ing, he  manifests  the  power  of  self-help.  The 
teacher  of  advanced  pupils  does  not  stand  in 
need  of  such  refinements  of  method  to  secure 
profitable  industry  in  his  classes  ;  it  is  the  teach- 
er of  feeble-minded  adults  or  of  very  young  chil- 
dren that  must  have  what  the  Germans  call  a 
''  developing    method ''   {entwickelnde  Methode). 

*  See  Annual  Report  of  Bureau  of  Education  for  1890-91, 
pp.  676-783. 


EDITOR^S  PREFACE.  ix 

A  correct  method  is  very  important  even  in 
higher  education ;  it  is  indispensable  in  primary 
education. 

It  happens,  therefore,  that  the  kindergarten 
gives  great  attention  to  the  sequence  of  studies, 
the  educational  value  of  each  exercise,  and  to 
the  correct  method  of  directing  the  pupil's  own 
efforts  without  stunting  them  by  officious  help. 
In  all  these  things  she,  the  good  kindergartner, 
continually  follows  the  lead  of  Froebel,  and  ever 
finds  new  significance  in  his  profound  thoughts, 
expressed,  as  they  often  are  by  him,  in  the  form 
of  obscure  hints  or  inadequate  expositions. 

The  existence  in  every  community  of  a  coterie 
of  zealous  students  of  Froebel,  composed  of  teach- 
ers and  mothers  of  young  children,  will  tend  to 
draw  large  numbers  of  the  instructors  of  older 
children  and  youth  into  the  study  of  the  mental 
evolution  of  children.  Then  will  follow  an  edu- 
cational era  of  good  methods  in  all  gradeg^gf, 
schools.  We  shall  not  find  then,  as  we  do  now,  a 
teacher  permitted  to  overdo  one  branch  of  study 
to  such  an  extent  as  to  arrest  development  on 
some  elementary  plane,  and  destroy  aspiration 
for  more  perfect  instruments  of  knowledge  and 
for  deeper  depths  of  thought. 

The  mechanic  who  has  learned  with  great 
thoroughness  a  knack  of  the  hand,  is  not  as  eager 


X  EDITOR'S  PREFACE. 

to  learn  how  to  manage  a  macliine  that  can  do 
more  and  better  work  as  is  the  workman  who 
lacks  perfection  in  the  lower  form  of  manual 
skill.  Thoroughness,  carried  to  mechanical  per- 
fection in  the  studies  of  the  primary  school,  often 
produces  this  arrest  of  development.  Over-culti- 
vation of  verbal  meniory  cripples  alike  the  power 
of  original  thinking  and  the  power  of  accurate 
observation.  Too  much  practice  on  elementary 
arithmetic,  for  the  purpose  of  securing  rapid  and 
accurate  addition  of  columns  of  numbers,  is 
known  to  dull  the  capacity  to  learn  grammar, 
and  history,  and  literature. 

If  the  methods  in  use  in  the  elementary  and* 
secondary  schools  were  founded  on  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  evolution  of  the  mental  faculties, 
would  not  a  far  greater  number  of  our  youth 
manifest  an  intense  desire  to  continue  work  in 
the  secondary  school,  and  froip.  thence  resort  to 
the  college  and  university  ?  As  it  is,  ninety- 
four  pupils  out  of  every  one  hundred  are  study- 
ing only  elementary  branches.  While  nearly  all 
the  children  under  fourteen  years  of  age  get  some 
elementary  instruction,  only  one  in  seven  of  those 
between  fourteen  and  eighteen  get  secondary  in- 
struction, and  only  one  in  thirty  of  those  between 
eighteen  and  twenty-two  attend  colleges  and. 
universities.    Even  if  the  secondary  and  higher 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE.  xi 

scliools  were  not  better  filled  than  now,  would 
not  the  enkindled  aspiration  in  our  youth  pro- 
duce a  people  that  would  carry  on  their  educa- 
tion throughout  life  ? 

I  have  already  pointed  out,  in  my  preface  to 
the  translation  of  Froebel's  Education  of  Man, 
published  in  this  series,  that  the  philosopher  of 
education  is  Froebel,  and  not  Pestalozzi,  who  is 
only  the  prophet  or  herald  of  its  philosophy. 
^^ Inner  connection'^  is  Froebers  chief  category, 
and  he  seeks  unweariedly  all  his  life  to  find  inner 
connection  between  the  steps  of  growth  in  the 
"child  and  inner  connection  between  the  realms  of 
Nature.  Pursuing  this  line  of  inquiry,  he  comes 
finally  to  seek  the  correspondence  between  the 
inner  connection  of  the  unfolding  faculties  of 
the  child  and  the  inner  connection  that  exists  in 
Nature.  And  inasmuch  as  correspondence  itself 
is  inner  connection,  we  scq  that  Froebel's  philoso- 
phy of  education  is  an  inner  connection  of  the 
third  degree : 

1.  Inner  connection  between  the  objects  of 
Nature :  evolution. 

2.  Inner  connection  between  the  faculties  of 
the  mind  :  mental  development,  or  education. 

3.  Inner  connection  between  the  subjective 
and  objective,  the  mind  and  Nature :  the  philos- 
ophy of  education. 


xii  EDITOR'S  PREFACE. 

The  first  self -revelation  of  the  child  is  through 
play.  He  learns  by  it  what  he  can  do :  what  he 
can  do  easily  at  first  trial,  and  what  he  can  do  by 
perseverance  and  contrivance.  Thus  he  learns 
through  play  to  recognize  the  potency  of  those 
'^  lords  of  life^^  (as  Emerson  calls  them)  that 
weave  the  tissue  of  human  experience — volition, 
making  and  unmaking,  obstinacy  of  material,  the 
magic  of  contrivance,  the  lordly  might  of  perse- 
verance that  can  re-enforce  the  moment  by  the 
hours  (and  time  by  eternity).  The  child  in  his 
games  represents  to  himself  his  kinship  to  the 
human  race — his  identity,  as  little  self,  with  the 
social  whole  as  his  greater  self. 

In  the  nature  of  things  the  child  is  always 
outgrowing  his  playthings — always  exhausting 
the  possibilities  of  a  given  object  to  represent  or 
symbolize  the  occupations  and  deeds  of  grown- 
up humanity  in  the  world  about  him.  Were  the 
child  to  arrest  his  development  and  linger  con- 
tented over  a  doll  or  a  hobby-horse,  the  result 
would  be  lamentable.  Hence  unmaking  is  as 
important  as  mahing  to  the  child.  His  destruc- 
tive energy  is  as  essential  to  him  as  his  power 
of  construction — a  point  often  missed  by  kin- 
dergartners  who  have  not  penetrated  Froebel's 
doctrine  of  inner  connection  in  its  third  degree. 

True  inner  development  or  education  should 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE.  xiii 

proceed  from  the  symbolic  to  the  aesthetic  or 
artistic,  from  art  to  science,  and  from  science  to 
philosophy ;  for  true  art  (including  also  poetry) 
is  a  higher  form  of  ^^ inner  connection'^  than 
the  merely  symbolic,  which  constitutes  the  spir- 
itual side  of  play.  Again,  science  and  philoso- 
phy are  more  advanced  than  art  in  the  fact  that 
they  seize  the  inner  connection  directly  and  sim- 
ply, while  the  symbolic  form  is  only  a  suspicion 
or  intimation  of  an  inner  connection,  and  art  is 
only  a  personification  or  an  illustration  of  it. 

Miss  Blow,  in  the  last  chapter  of  the  book 
before  us,  has  characterized  in  a  happy  manner 
this  transcendental  feature  in  human  life — de- 
scribing it  as  ^Wortical  education '';  as  if  sym- 
bolic corresponded  to  the  line,  art  to  the  surface, 
and  science  to  the  solid,  having  within  itself  all 
the  three  dimensions.  She  has  done  a  great 
service  to  the  philosophy  of  Froebel  by  expound- 
ing as  his  chief  thought  the  idea  of  GUedganzes, 
or  whole  that  is  at  the  same  time  a  member  of 
a  larger  whole — as  man  is  a  self-determined  in- 
dividual, and  at  the  same  time  is  a  constituent 
of  a  social  whole — as,  for  example,  the  family, 
the  city  corporation,  the  nation  (see  Chapters  II 
and  III). 

This  idea  of  "  member- whole  "  is  undoubtedly 
the  deepest  and  most  fruitful  in  the  philosophy 


xiv  EDITOR'S  PREFACE. 

of  education,  and  it  is  well  that  its  consideration 
is  introduced  in  the  first  chapter  of  this  book  by 
a  criticism  of  its  opposite  idea,  that  of  atomism, 
which  is  preached  by  Rousseau  and  his  dis- 
ciples. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  here  that  Hegel  found 
this  thought  in  the  famous  seventh  chapter  of  the 
eleventh  book  of  Aristotle^s  Metaphysics,  where 
he  speaks  of  the  intelligible  as  being  the  "  other 
co-element"  {(rva-TOLxca)  of  the  thinking  activity 
or  reason  (vo9s).  He  exclaims,  on  quoting  this 
passage,  "One  can  scarce  believe  his  eyes,"  at 
finding  this  thought  in  Aristotle ;  and  proceeds 
to  explain  the  word  crva-roixta  (which  is  often 
translated  series)  as  sometimes  signifying  "an 
element  which  is  itself  its  own  element,  and  is 
always  self-determined " — that  is  to  say,  it  is  a 
member  of  itself,  and  thus  a  whole  and  a  part  at 
the  same  time.  The  reach  of  this  thought  is  note- 
worthy as  explaining  the  constitution  of  mind  or 
consciousness  (which  is  subject  and  object — co- 
elements — and  at  the  same  time  a  whole  including 
both ;  the  subject  and  object  are  likewise  wholes 
as  well  as  co-elements).  Here  we  have  a  Glied- 
gauzes.  But  what  man  is  as  personality,  he  is 
also  in  his  institutions  ;  he  is  a  citizen  of  a  state ; 
the  parent  or  the  child  of  the  family ;  a  member 
of  any  co-operative  community.    This,  too,  is  ex- 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE.  XV 

pressed  in  the  highest  thought  man  has  reached, 
that  of  the  invisible  Church  celebrated  in  St. 
John^s  Revelation,  wherein  each  person,  inspired 
by  the  missionary  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  for  oth- 
ers, becomes  a  member  of  an  infinite  choir  or 
congregation,  and  at  the  same  time  he  is  an  in- 
dividual self -active  whole  in  himself.  Indeed,  is 
not  the  mystery  of  the  Holy  Trinity  the  supreme 
exemplar  of  this  independence  in  the  midst  of 
perfect  unity  with  others  ? 

The  Mother's  Songs  and  Games  (Mutter-Spiel 
und  Koselieder)  *  was  published  fifteen  years 
after  The  Education  of  Man,  and  gives  the 
fruitage  of  FroebeFs  long  thinking  and  experi- 
menting. 

The  publishers  of  this  series  have  pleasure  in 
offering  this  valuable  commentary  on  the  most 

*  Kose  may  be  translated  haby-talk — the  mother's  prattling 
in  imitation  of  the  imperfect  articulation  and  ungrammatical 
speech  of  infants.  The  derivation  of  this  word  seems  uncertain, 
but  probably,  as  Grimm  suggests,  it  came  from  the  Latin  cau- 
sari,  to  plead  in  court — like  the  French  causer,  to  talk  or  chat — 
in  the  very  earliest  period  of  intercourse  between  Germans  and 
Romans,  inasmuch  as  the  chief  feature  of  a  Roman  court  of  law 
would  impress  strangers  like  Celts  or  Germans  so  strongly  as  to 
lead  them  to  borrow  the  Latin  word  to  describe  it  with.  Later 
the  word  was  used  to  describe  altercation ;  and  then  ordinary 
conversation ;  and  finally  familiar  chat  (French,  causerie ;  also 
English  colloquial  coze  for  chat,  see  Murray's  Dictionary ;  and 
cousae,  a  gossip ;  see  also  Dietz,  Et.  Worth.  Rom.  Spr.,  sub 
cosa). 

2 


xvi  EDITOR'S  PREFACE. 

important  of  all  FroebeFs  works,  and  trust  that 
it  may  be  kindly  received  by  the  large  and  in- 
creasing class  of  persons  interested  in  the  kin- 
dergarten. 

W.  T.  Harris. 

Washington,  D.  C,  January  31,  1894. 


AUTHOE'S  PEEFACE. 


Eeaders  of  this  book  will  at  once  perceive 
its  incompleteness.  Lines  of  thought  are  indi- 
cated in  the  earlier  chapters  which  are  not  sub- 
sequently developed.  The  Mutter-  und  Kose- 
lieder  is  treated  under  only  one  of  its  varied 
aspects.  The  gifts  and  occupations  receive  mere- 
ly incidental  mention.  The  explanation  of  these 
facts  is  that  only  half  of  the  book  is  written.  As, 
however,  many  kindergartners  express  a  need  of 
help  in  the  study  of  the  Mutter-  und  Koselieder, 
it  seems  well  to  me  to  publish  the  finished  chap- 
ters. The  rest  of  the  work  shall  follow  so  soon 
as  I  have  time  and  strength  to  write  it. 

Those  of  my  readers  who  are  familiar  with 
the  writings  of  Dr.  Harris  will  recognize  my 
indebtedness  to  him.  The  extent  of  this  indebt- 
edness no  one  can  realize  so  fully  as  myself.    I 


xviii  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. 

count  it  one  of  the  great  privileges  of  my  life 
that  my  practical  work  in  the  kindergarten  was 
begun  and  continued  for  seven  years  under  his 
searching  yet  kindly  criticism;  nor  am  I  less 
grateful  for  the  insights  which  have  come  to 
me  from  his  books,  his  lectures,  and  his  many 
monographs  on  philosophy  and  education. 

Susan  E.  Blow. 

Avon,  N,  Y.,  January  20, 1894. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER 

PAQK 

I.— Atomism •       •       .       .       3 

II. — Development  ...        * 

.      19 

III.— The  Childhood  of  the  Race 

51 

IV — The  Symbolism  of  Childhood 

,      81 

v.— The  Meaning  of  Play  . 

111 

VI. — Old  Lady  Gairfowl 

149 

VII. — Pattern  Experiences    . 

167 

VIIL— Vortical  Education      •       .       , 

.    213 

I. 

ATOMISM. 


^'^  Let  us,  then,  I  said, 
Leav/ihis  unknit  republic  to  the  scourge 
Of  hjA-Vwn 'passions,  and  to  regions,  haste 
Wh(li«  shades  have  never  felt  the  encroaching  axe, 
Or  sofl^ndured  a  transfer  in  the  mart- 
Of  direVapacity.     There  man  abides, 
Primeval  Nature's  child.    A  creature  weak 
In  combination  (wherefore  else  driven  buck 
So  far,  and  of  his  old  inheritance 
So  easily  deprived  ? ),  but,  for  that  cause. 
More  dignified,  and  stronger  in  himself, 
Whether  to  act,  judge,  sufi'er,  or  enjoy. 
True,  the  intelligence  of  social  art 
Ilath  overpowered  his  forefathers,  and  soon 
Will  sweep  the  remnant  of  his  line  away ; 
But  contemplations,  worthier,  nobler  far 
Than  her  destructive  energies,  attend 
His  independence,  when  along  the  side 
Of  Mississippi,  or  that  northern  stream 
That  spreads  into  successive  seas,  he  walks  ; 
Pleased  to  perceive  his  own  unshackled  life, 
And  his  innate  capacities  of  soul, 
There  imaged  :  or  when,  having  gained  the  top 
Of  some  commanding  eminence,  which  yet 
Intruder  ne'er  beheld,  he  thence  surveys 
Kegions  of  wood  and  wide  savanna,  vast 
Expanse  of  unappropriated  earth. 
With  mind  that  sheds  a  light  on  what  he  sees ; 
Free  as  the  sun,  and  lonely  as  the  sun. 
Pouring  above  his  head  its  radiance  down 
Upon  a  living  and  rejoicing  world  ! 
So,  westward,  tow'rd  the  unviolated  woods 
I  bent  my  way  ;  and  roaming  far  and  wide, 
Failed  not  to  greet  the  merry  mocking-bird  ; 

But  that  pure  archetype  of  human  greatness, 
I  found  him  not.    There  in  his  stead  appeared 
A  creature  squalid,  vengeful,  and  impure  ; 
Kemorseless,  and  submissive  to  no  law 
But  superstitious  fear  and  abject  sloth." 

Wordsworth,  The  Excursion. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ATOMISM. 

It  has  often  been  observed  that  the  dominant 
idea  of  an  age  gives  form  alike  to  its  science,  its 
politics,  its  philosophy,  its  theology,  and  its  edu- 
cation. Thus  the  age  of  scientific  atomism  was 
also  an  age  of  political  atomism,  reaching  its  cli- 
max in  the  French  Revolution;  of  philosophic 
atomism  as  illustrated  in  the  sense  theory  of 
knowledge,  and  carried  to  its  logical  consequences 
by  Hume  in  the  denial  of  causality  and  true  self- 
hood ;  of  theological  atomism,  shown  in  the  crude 
deism  which  excluded  a  kind  of  atomic  divinity 
from  that  aggregate  of  atoms  which  could  only 
by  courtesy  be  called  the  universe ;  and  of  edu- 
cational atomism,  as  set  forth  in  the  Emile  of 
Rousseau.  So,  to-day,  the  reigning  idea  in  all 
departments  of  thought  is  development,  and  we 
tirelessly  repeat  the  evolutionary  dictum,  that 
"  to  know  what  a  thing  really  is  we  must  exam- 
ine how  it  came  to  be.'' 

As  a  theory  of  human  nature,  atomism  was  a 


4  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

creed  with,  two  main  articles.  Of  these,  the  first 
affirmed  man  to  be  by  nature  good ;  the  second 
declared  arts,  sciences,  institutions — in  short, 
everything  produced  by  man — to  be  wholly  bad. 
The  only  salvation  for  humanity  lay  in  return  to 
the  primitive  state  of  savagism ;  and  so  soon  as 
men  realized  their  deplorable  condition  they 
would  exclaim  in  bitterness  of  heart,  "Thou, 
who  disposest  of  our  understandings,  deliver  us 
not  up  to  the  fatal  arts  and  sciences  of  our  fore- 
fathers, but  restore  us  to  ignorance,  innocence, 
and  indigence,  which  alone  can  make  us  happy 
and  which  are  precious  in  thy  sight/'  * 

Rousseau's  attack  upon  civilization  is  whole- 
hearted, as  may  be  seen  in  the  following  extracts 
from  Emile :  "  All  our  wisdom  consists  in  servile 
prejudices ;  all  our  customs  are  only  subjection, 
bondage,  and  restraint.  Civilized  man  is  born, 
lives,  and  dies  in  slavery ;  at  his  birth  he  is  con- 
fined in  swaddling  clothes ;  at  death  he  is  nailed 
in  a  coffin.  So  long  as  he  retains  the  human  form 
he  is  fettered  by  our  institutions."  f  Through 
this  slavery  character  is  debauched  and  courage 
destroyed ;  and  man,  unfit  to  live,  is,  "  by  the 
prescriptions  of  the  physicians,  the  precepts  of 

*  Rousseau's  Inquiry  into  the  Effects  of  the  Arts  and  Sci- 
ences. 

t  fimile,  (Gamier  Freres),  Paris,  p.  31. 


ATOMISM.  5 

the  philosopliers,  and  the  prayers  and  exhorta- 
tions of  the  priest,  made  ignorant  how  to  die/^ 
The  only  remedy  for  this  state  of  things  is  isola- 
tion. "  Men  were  not  made  to  be  crammed  to- 
gether like  ants  in  ant-hills,  but  to  be  scattered 
over  the  earth  which  it  is  their  duty  to  cultivate. 
The  more  they  collect  together  the  more  they 
corrupt  each  other.  IniSrmities  of  body  and  vices 
of  the  heart  are  the  infallible  effects  of  their  too 
numerous  concourse.  Of  all  animals  men  are 
least  adapted  to  live  in  herds.  If  they  were 
crowded  together  as  sheep  are  they  would  all 
perish  in  a  short  time.  The  breath  of  man  is 
fatal  to  his  fellows,  nor  is  this  less  true  in  a 
figurative  than  in  a  literal  sense.^^  * 

In  view  of  the  corruption  incident  to  human 
intercourse,  Rousseau^s  first  educational  require- 
ment is  the  isolation  of  the  pupil.  As  the  soli- 
tary man  Robinson  Crusoe  is  the  ideal  human 
being,  so  the  solitary  education  is  the  true  educa- 
tion. Such  persons  as  the  pupil  is  forced  to  see 
must  be  so  entirely  dominated  by  the  father  or 
governor  that  he  can  calculate  in  advance  their 
every  word  and  act.  In  the  ideal  family  life,  as 
depicted  in  the  New  Hdlo'ise,  every  servant  in  the 
house  is  represented  as  entering  into  the  designs 
of  the  master  for  the  education  of  his  sons.    In 

*  flmile,  Book  I,  p.  34. 


6  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

Ernile  the  same  conditions  are  insisted  upon. 
"You  will  never/^  says  Rousseau,  "be  master  of 
your  pupil  unless  you  are  master  of  all  those 
about  him " ;  *  and  though  he  admits  that  such 
domination  is  difficult,  perhaps  impossible,  he 
insists  that  it  must  be  the  end  aimed  at,  and  that 
he  who  most  nearly  approaches  it  will  be  the 
most  successful  educator. 

Having  secured  the  pupil  so  far  as  possible 
from  the  contamination  of  human  intercourse, 
the  ideal  atomistic  education  may  be  safely  begun 
by  leaving  him  to  the  exercise  of  what  Rousseau 
calls  his  "  natural  liberty.'^  Here  our  author  is 
in  his  element.  "  Let  us,^^  he  says,  "  lay  it  down 
as  an  incontestable  maxim  that  the  first  impulses 
of  Nature  are  always  right ;  there  is  no  original 
perversity  in  the  human  heart;  there  is  not  a 
single  vice  of  which  one  may  not  discover  how 
and  whence  it  enters  the  soul.^^  t  The  only  thing 
necessary  to  make  the  pupil  perfectly  good  is  to 
leave  him  entirely  free  to  do  as  he  chooses.  "  A 
really  free  man  wills  only  what  he  is  able  to  do, 
and  does  what  he  pleases.  This  is  a  fundamental 
truth.  Apply  it  to  the  state  of  childhood,  and 
all  the  rules  of  education  will  flow  from  it.^^  X 

"There  is  only  one  science,"  continues  our 
author,  "  which  should  be  taught  children,  and 

*  tmi\Q,  p.  78.  t  ^bid.,  p.  75.  X  Ibid.,  p.  64. 


ATOMISM.  7 

that  is  the  science  of  human  duties.'^  *  This  sci- 
ence is  taught  by  carefully  preserving  the  child 
from  any  sense  of  moral  obligation.  ^^  The  words 
command  and  obey  should  be  ruled  out  of  his 
dictionary,  still  more  so,  those  of  duty  and  ob- 
ligation," t 

"Never  command  the  child  to  do  the  least 
thing.  Do  not  let  him  even  imagine  that  you 
claim  to  have  any  authority  over  him.''  |  "  Give 
him  no  kind  of  verbal  lesson ;  he  should  receive 
no  lessons  save  from  experience.  Inflict  upon 
him  no  kind  of  punishment,  for  he  knows  not 
what  it  is  to  be  in  fault.  Never  require  him  to 
ask  pardon,  for  he  is  incapable  of  ojffending  you. 
Lacking  all  sense  of  right  and  wrong,  he  can  do 
nothing  which  is  morally  evil,  or  which  merits 
either  punishment  or  reproof.''  * 

Rousseau  is  not  blind  to  the  practical  difficul- 
ties involved  in  allowing  the  child  to  do  as  he 
pleases.  He  avoids  them  to  his  own  satisfaction 
by  granting  an  apparent  rather  than  a  real  free- 
dom. The  pupil  is  constantly  watched,  con- 
stantly duped,  and,  by  a  series  of  theatrical  de- 
nouments,  taught  the  nature  of  his  acts.  The 
artificiality  and  insincerity  of  the  method  are  its 
sufficient  condemnation. 

As  Emile  is  made  virtuous  through  insensi- 

*  f.raile,  p.  24.    f  I^i<^^-»  P-  70.      %  Ibid.,  p.  73.     =»  Ibid.,  p.  74. 


8  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

bility  to  moral  obligation,  so  his  mind  is  pre- 
pared for  rational  faith  by  being  kept  empty  of 
all  religious  ideas.  At  fifteen  years  of  age  he 
hardly  knows  whether  "  he  has  or  has  not  a  soul/^ 
and  is  not  yet "  capacitated  to  believe  in  God/' 
When,  finally,  the  progress  of  his  understanding 
leads  him  to  religious  inquiry,  the  "  right  use  of 
his  own  reason  will  conduct  him  to  the  natural 
and  true  iaitW  This  religion  of  reason,  as  Rous- 
seau proceeds  to  show,  is  that  deism  which,  while 
professing  to  worship  a  transcendent  divinity, 
really  denies  God  altogether.  The  Savoyard 
vicar,  into  whose  mouth  Rousseau  puts  his  own 
confession  of  faith,  knows  that  the  Deity  exists, 
and  that  his  existence  is  independent  of  any  of 
his  creatures ;  but,  adds  he,  "  I  no  sooner  inquire 
where  he  is,  and  what  is  his  substance,  than  he 
eludes  my  thought,  and  my  troubled  spirit  ceases 
to  know  anything."  *  This  inscrutable  Divinity 
is  the  Designer  and  Orderer  of  the  world,  but  it 
is  by  no  means  sure  that  he  is  its  creator.  The 
vicar  is  doubtful  whether  there  be  one  or  two 
self-existent  principles,  and  the  idea  of  creation 
''  confounds  his  understanding.''  With  regard  to 
the  soul,  his  view  is  equally  vague.  "  I  feel,"  he 
confesses,  ^^  that  I  have  a  soul ;  I  know  this  both 
from  sentiment  and  from  thought ;  I  know  that 

*  fimile,  p.  309. 


ATOMISM.  9 

my  soul  is,  but  I  know  nothing  of  its  essence,  and 
I  can  not  reason  with  regard  to  ideas  which  I  do 
not  possess/'  *  One  thing,  however,  incenses  this 
rationalizing  ecclesiastic,  who  knows  nothing  of 
the  essence  of  God,  or  of  the  essence  of  the  soul, 
and  that  is,  to  be  told  that  God  is  a  spirit  and  his 
soul  likewise  spiritual.  "To  conceive  God  and 
the  soul  as  having  the  same  nature  "  is  the  "  de- 
basement of  the  divine  essence/'  t  Such  is  the 
theological  atomism  to  which  the  right  use  of 
reason  shall  conduct  Emile.  It  requires  little 
mental  acumen  to  perceive  that  this  so-called  de- 
ism is  really  atheism  in  disguise. 

As  political  atomism  leads  Eousseau  to  insist 
upon  the  isolation  of  the  pupil,  and  theological 
atomism  inspires  his  aversion  to  all  religious 
teaching,  so  the  taint  of  philosophic  atomism 
may  be  recognized  in  the  exaggerated  emphasis 
he  places  upon  the  cultivation  of  the  senses. 
Declaring  sensation  to  be  the  source  of  thought, 
and  affirming  that  in  sensation  the  mind  is  wholly 
passive  and  receptive,  he  urges  that,  by  control- 
ling the  order  of  the  child's  sense-impressions,  we 
may  determine  the  future  order  of  his  ideas. 
Moreover,  since  no  art  can  be  practiced  without 
the  proper  implements,  and  since  the  senses  are 
the  implements  through  which  knowledge  is  ac- 

*  femile,  I,  p.  317.  t  ^bid.,  p.  819. 


10  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

quired,  to  exercise  the  child  in  seeing,  hearing, 
touching,  tasting,  and  smelling  is  to  make  him 
capable  of  thinking  and  of  learning.  It  is  need- 
less to  expand  these  suggestions,  for  all  readers 
familiar  with  the  history  of  education  will  recog- 
nize in  them  the  germ  of  the  '^  object-lesson  "  which 
became  so  prominent  a  feature  in  the  system  of 
Pestalozzi.  It  may,  however,  be  not  unimportant 
to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  Pestalozzi's  en- 
tire system  was  vitiated  by  his  acceptance  of  the 
principle  (fallen,  since  the  time  of  Kant,  into 
philosophic  discredit),  ^'  Nothing  in  the  intellect 
that  was  not  previously  in  sense-perception.^^  * 

*  In  opposition  to  the  suggestion  of  Rousseau  with  regard  to 
exercising  the  senses  and  restraining  the  activity  of  the  mind 
may  be  urged  the  following  considerations  : 

1.  In  sensation  itself  the  mind  is  not  passive  but  active.  To 
have  a  sensation  is  to  "  discriminate  between  an  existing  state 
of  the  self  and  other  possible  states."  In  deciding  whether  he 
is  sleepy  or  hungry,  whether  he  sees  or  hears,  the  infant  exer- 
cises an  activity  of  comparison. 

2.  Sensations  must  be  distinguished  from  perceptions,  which 
arise  only  "  when  the  mind  brings  to  the  aid  of  sense-impression 
the  ideas  of  causality,  space,  and  time,  which  are  furnished  by 
its  own  activity."  Through  the  idea  of  causality  the  mind 
recognizes  something  '*  objectively  existent  as  the  producer  of 
its  sense-impressions."  Through  the  idea  of  space  it  recognizes 
this  objectively  existent  somewhat  as  having  boundaries,  and 
through  the  idea  of  time  is  enabled  to  perceive  its  changes.  In 
perception,  therefore,  the  mind  exercises  a  higher  degree  of  self- 
activity  than  in  mere  sensation. 

3.  "  Every  act  of  perception  is  an  act  of  recognition."  This 
implies  knowledge  of    the  objects  or   attributes  recognized. 


ATOMISM.  11 

To  the  exercise  of  the  senses  Rousseau  adds 
that  of  the  bodily  powers,  but  insists  that  the 
mind  should  be  kept  passive,  and  that  during  the 
period  of  childhood  the  aim  of  the  teacher  should 
be  "  to  lose  time  ^'  and  to  "  train  his  pupil  in  the 
art  of  being  ignorant/'  "If,''  concludes  this 
lover  of  paradoxes,  "  you  could  do  nothing  and 
could  prevent  anything  from  being  done ;  if  you 

"  First  the  mind  recognizes  a  sense-impression,  and  through 
that  impression  an  object ;  then  the  nature  of  the  object ;  its 
identities  with  well-known  kinds  of  objects ;  its  individual  dif- 
ferences from  those  well-known  kinds  of  objects.  But  the  dif. 
ferences  are  recognized  as  identical  with  well-known  kinds  of 
diiferences.  It  is  the  combination  of  different  classes  or  kinds 
of  attributes  that  enables  the  mind  to  recognize  the  individuality 
of  the  new  object.  It  is  like  all  others  and  different  from  all 
others." 

4.  From  these  considerations  it  follows  that  the  more  the 
observer  knows  of  the  class  of  objects  represented  by  the  speci- 
men present  to  his  senses,  the  more  rapid  will  be  the  perceptive 
process.  Knowing  what  to  look  for,  he  loses  no  time  in  des- 
ultory and  futile  observation.  Knowledge  of  the  ideal  arche- 
types of  objects  incites  the  mind  to  observation  and  verification. 
Hence,  to  develop  powers  of  quick  perception,  it  is  necessary 
not  only  to  exercise  the  senses  but  to  increase  the  pupil's  stock 
of  general  ideas,  and  thus  illuminate  the  mind  that  uses  the 
senses. 

Readers  interested  in  the  philosophy  of  sense-perception  are 
earnestly  recommended  to  study  carefully  Dr.  Harris's  Thoughts 
on  Educational  Psychology,  from  which  I  have  quoted  freely  in 
the  foregoing  remarks.  Chapter  VI,  on  "Time,  Space,  and 
Causality — Three  Ideas  that  make  Experience  possible" — and 
Chapters  IX,  X,  XI,  on  the  Logic  of  Sense- Perception,  will  be 
found  especially  helpful. 
3 


12  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

could  conduct  your  pupil  healthy  and  strong  to 
the  age  of  twelve  years  without  his  being  able  to 
distinguish  his  right  hand  from  his  left,  the  eyes 
of  his  understanding  would  be  open  to  reason 
from  your  first  lesson.  Without  prejudices  and 
without  habits,  there  would  be  nothing  in  him 
to  thwart  your  efforts.  Soon  he  would  become 
under  your  hands  the  wisest  of  men,  and  by  be- 
ginning with  doing  nothing  you  would  have 
made  a  prodigy  of  education.'^  * 

A  final  mark  of  the  influence  of  atomism  over 
the  mind  of  Rousseau  may  be  traced  in  his  at- 
tack upon  books.  "  I  hate  books,^'  he  says,  "  for 
they  only  teach  people  to  talk  about  what  they 
do  not  understand.'^  It  is  curious  to  hear  Pesta- 
lozzi  echoing  these  ideas,  and  inveighing  against 
the  art  of  printing,  through  which  "  eyes  have 
become  mere  book-eyes,  men  book-men.'^  It  is 
more  curious  still  to  recall  the  number  of  books 
written  by  each  of  these  enemies  of  books. 

When  the  age  for  instruction  arrives,  Rous- 
seau suggests  that,  in  lieu  of  literary  and  lin- 
guistic studies,  the  pupil  be  taught  a  trade  and 
be  made  to  "  invent  the  sciences."  "  No  other 
book  than  the  world,  no  other  instruction  than 
facts,''  f  is  the  final  dictum  of  this  restless  inno- 

*  ifemile,  p.  76. 

f  Barnard's  Pestalozzi  and  Pestalozzianism,  p.  73. 


ATOMISM.  13 

vator,  who  seems  never  to  have  reflected  that 
facts  are  not  fixed  but  expansive,  and  that  only- 
through  the  study  of  books  wherein  are  garnered 
the  fruits  of  all  human  observation  and  thought 
can  the  individual  interpret  aright  his  own 
partial  and  fragmentary  experience.  A  pot  of 
ferns  is  a  fact,  yet  how  different  its  import  to 
the  botanist  and  the  child  who,  striving  to  in- 
terpret the  unknown  by  the  known,  describes  it 
as  a  pot  of  green  feathers '' !  *  The  earthworm  is 
a  fact,  yet  between  the  meaning  of  this  fact  to 
the  boy  who  sees  in  it  only  bait  for  fishes  and  its 
meaning  to  Darwin  the  difference  is  incommen- 
surable. And  not  even  to  botanist  and  natu- 
ralist do  plant  and  worm  tell  all  their  secrets. 
The  fact  which  is  opaque  to  the  ignorant  man 
and  translucent  to  the  specialist  is  transparent 
only  to  the  thinker  who  has  learned  to  see  "  by 
wholes,''  and  who  from  star  and  stone,  from 
flower  and  feeling,  has  broken  a  pathway  to  the 
Absolute  Mind : 

"  Flower  in  the  crannied  wall, 
I  pluck  you  out  of  the  crannies — 
Hold  you  here,  root  and  all,  in  my  hand, 
Little  flower ;  but  if  I  could  understand 
What  you  are,  root  and  all,  and  all  in  all, 
I  should  know  what  God  and  man  is." 

*  See  a  short  monograph  entitled  A  Pot  of  Green  Feathers, 
by  T.  G.  Roopcr,  M.  A.,  published  by  C.  W.  Bardeen.  Syracuse, 
N.  Y. 


14  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

Rousseau's  merit  is  that  of  tlie  tornado  and 
the  conflagration,  and  we  must  always  remem- 
ber with  gratitude  his  burning  attack  upon  that 
formalism  which,  by  teaching  signs  instead  of 
the  things  they  signify,  fortifies  ignorance  in  the 
stronghold  of  self-satisfaction.  He  cleared  the 
rubbish  of  centuries  from  the  field  of  educational 
theory,  and  thus  made  it  ready  for  fresh  plow- 
ing and  sowing.  Moreover,  in  his  insistence 
upon  the  study  of  the  child  he  pointed  out  the 
indispensable  condition  of  educational  reform. 
The  results  of  his  own  observation  are  sum- 
marized in  the  following  striking  passage  from 
La  Nouvelle  Hdloise  * — a  passage  upon  which  its 
author  stamps  his  approval  by  repeating  it  word 
for  word  in  Emile  :  "  Nature  wishes  children  to 
be  children  before  they  are  men.  If  we  pervert 
this  order  we  shall  produce  precocious  fruits — 
fruits  which  have  neither  maturity  nor  savor, 
and  are  soon  corrupted.  We  shall  have  young 
sages  and  old  children.  Childhood  has  its  pe- 
culiar manner  of  seeing,  feeling,  and  thinking; 
nothing  is  less  rational  than  the  attempt  to  sub- 
stitute our  own,  and  I  should  as  soon  think  of 
requiring  a  child  to  be  five  feet  high  as  to  have 
judgment  at  ten  years  of  age." 

*  La  Nouvelle  Heloise,  Garnier  Freres,  Paris,  fimile, 
p.  72. 


ATOMISM.  15 

This  cursory  survey  of  tlie  educational  prin- 
ciples of  Rousseau  has  been  inspired  by  the  fact 
that  current  opinion  tends  to  exaggerate  the  cor- 
respondences and  minimize  the  differences  be- 
tween his  views  and  those  of  Pestalozzi  and 
Froebel.  There  are  undoubtedly  many  points  of 
resemblance  between  Pestalozzi  and  Rousseau, 
and  likewise  many  points  of  resemblance  be- 
tween Pestalozzi  and  Froebel,  but  the  points 
wherein  Pestalozzi  agrees  with  Froebel  are  pre- 
cisely those  wherein  he  differs  from  Rousseau. 
Between  the  views  of  Rousseau  and  those  of 
Froebel  there  are  in  my  judgment  no  affinities 
whatsoever. 


II. 

DEVELOPMENT. 


"Because  are  thither  pointed  your  desires 
Where  by  companionship  each  share  is  lessened 
Envy  doth  ply  the  bellows  to  your  sighs. 
But  if  the  love  of  the  supernal  sphere 
Should  upwardly  direct  your  aspiration, 
There  would  not  be  that  fear  within  your  breast ; 
For  there,  as  much  the  more  as  one  says  Our, 
So  much  the  more  of  good  each  one  possesses, 
And  more  of  charity  in  that  cloister  burns." 
"  I  am  more  hungering  to  be  satisfied," 
I  said,  "  than  if  I  had  before  been  silent. 
And  more  of  doubt  within  my  mind  I  gather. 
How  can  it  be,  that  boon  distributed 
The  more  possessors  can  more  wealthy  make 
Therein,  than  if  by  few  it  be  possessed  ?  " 
And  he  to  me  :  "  Because  thou  fixest  still 
Thy  mind  entirely  upon  earthly  things, 
Thou  pluckest  darkness  from  the  very  light. 
That  goodness  infinite  and  ineffable 
Which  is  above  there,  runneth  unto  love, 
As  to  a  lucid  body  comes  the  sunbeam. 
So  much  it  gives  itself  as  it  finds  ardor, 
So  that  as  far  as  charity  extends. 
O'er  it  increases  the  eternal  valor. 
And  the  more  people  thitherward  aspire. 
More  are  there  to  love  well,  and  more  they  love  there. 
And  as  a  mirror,  one  reflects  the  other." 

Dante's  Purgatory^  XV ^  Longfellow'' s  Translation. 


^   OF  THg      ^ 

fUyi7BR: 

CHAPTER  11. 

DEVELOPMENT. 

The  theory  that  the  line  of  progress  is  not 
straight  but  spiral  has  never  received  more  strik- 
ing confirmation  than  in  the  revolution  which  de- 
throned atomism  and  crowned  the  idea  of  devel- 
opment autocrat  of  the  wide  realms  of  thought. 
Atomism  was  the  denial  of  unity  and  the  nega- 
tion of  process.  It  saw  in  the  physical  world  a 
mere  assemblage  of  independent  ^^ things";  in 
"  things "  mere  congeries  of  atoms ;  in  humanity 
an  external  aggregate  of  differing  individuals ; 
and  in  knowledge  nothing  but  sense-impressions, 
and  the  "  faint  images  of  these  impressions  called 
up  in  memory  and  thinking."  In  its  view,  more- 
over, the  immediate  phase  of  things  was  their 
reality,  and  the  atom,  the  "noble"  savage,  and 
the  sensation  were  respectively  the  truth  of  the 
physical  world,  of  humanity,  and  of  thought. 
Finally,  it  may  be  remarked  that  these  assumed 
originals  were  themselves  mere  abstractions  of 
the  understanding,  for  atoms  are  the  hypothetical 


20  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

results  of  analysis;  the  "noble  savage ^^  has  never 
existed  save  in  the  minds  of  Rousseau  and  his  dis- 
ciples, and  the  sensations  so  loudly  declared  to  be 
the  source  of  thought  are  themselves  only  known 
by  isolating  them  from  the  totality  of  experience. 
The  idea  of  development,  on  the  contrary,  has  in- 
cited thought  to  an  ever-widening  synthetic  ac- 
tivity. It  has  detached  our  gaze  from  objects  to 
fasten  it  upon  the  energies  which  produce  ob- 
jects. It  has  impelled  science  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  laws  of  Nature,  as  well  as  the  objects  of 
Nature,  have  arisen  through  a  process  of  evolu- 
tion, and  has  inspired  the  corresponding  psycho- 
logic doctrine  that  both  the  ideas  and  the  so- 
called  faculties  of  mind  are  the  products  of  its 
own  self -activity.  It  has  shed  fresh  light  upon 
the  spiritual  unity  of  mankind,  and  made  it  im- 
possible for  any  new  Rousseau  to  resuscitate  the 
atomic  individual.  It  has  convinced  us  that  the 
original  state  of  man  was  not  his  ideal  state,  and 
that  the  golden  age  is  yet  to  come.  Nay,  more : 
it  has  shown  that,  in  truth,  human  nature  exists 
only  as  it  is  created  by  self -activity,  and  that  it 
is  realized  in  the  individual  only  through  his  par- 
ticipation in  the  results  achieved  by  the  race.  In 
a  word,  it  has  pointed  out,  in  every  sphere,  the 
priority  of  energy  over  being,  revealed  the  active 
and  universal  as  the  originating  source  of  the 


DEVELOPMENT.  21 

static  and  particular,  and  thus,  while  satisfying 
the  craving  of  the  mind  for  unity,  thrilled  the 
heart  with  the  beauty  of  process. 

This  rapid  extension  of  the  idea  of  develop- 
ment into  all  provinces  of  thought  recalls  the 
Hindu  story  of  "  the  tiny  Brahman  who,  to  hum- 
ble the  pride  of  King  Bali,  begs  of  him  as  much 
sand  as  he  can  measure  in  three  steps.  When 
the  boon  is  granted,  the  tiny  dwarf  expands  into 
the  gigantic  form  of  Vishnu,  and,  striding  with 
one  step  across  the  earth,  another  across  the  air, 
and  a  third  across  the  sky,  drives  Bali  down  into 
the  infernal  regions."  *  This  story,  usually  in- 
terpreted as  a  myth  of  the  sunrise,  illustrates 
equally  the  sunrise  of  a  new  idea.  Thus  devel- 
opment, with  one  step  across  the  earth  has  taken 
possession  of  our  science,  with  another  step  across 
the  sky  has  appropriated  our  theology,  and  strid- 
ing across  the  air  has  made  psychology  and  edu- 
cation its  own  forever. 

The  application  of  the  idea  of  development  to 
education  has  been  in  large  measure  the  work  of 
Pestalozzi  and  Froebel.  To  the  former  we  owe 
the  ideal  of  education  as  the  harmonious  devel- 
opment of  inherent  powers ;  to  the  latter  must  be 
accorded  the  honor  of  having  first  clearly  per- 
ceived the  manifold  implications  of  this  ideal. 

*  Anthropology,  E.  B.  Tylor,  p.  397. 


22  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

The  mind  of  Pestalozzi  was  a  battle-ground  be- 
tween the  idea  of  development  and  the  atomism 
he  had  inherited  from  Rousseau.  Over  the  mind 
of  Froebel  the  new  ideal  held  sole  and  supreme 
sway,  and  so  clear  to  him  was  its  paramount  sig- 
nificance that  he  could  boldly  affirm  he  would 
rather  win  from  a  tiny  sand  grain  the  history  of 
its  development  than  learn  from  God  himself 
the  structure  of  the  universe. 

The  tendency  of  mind  to  make  a  symbol  of 
Nature  is  illustrated  afresh  in  every  period  of  sci- 
entific advance.  Thus,  no  sooner  does  Newton 
formulate  the  law  of  universal  gravitation,  than 
Swedenborg  perceives  therein  "a  mere  external 
of  the  irresistible  attractions  of  affection  and 
faith.^^  In  like  manner,  Schelling  recognizes  in 
the  opposing  poles  of  the  magnet  a  symbol  of 
human  consciousness,  and  Pestalozzi  and  Froebel 
discover  myriad  analogies  between  the  evolution 
of  physical  organisms  and  the  development  of 
mind. 

It  should,  however,  always  be  remembered 
that  an  analogy  is  not  a  definition.  It  is  as  false 
and  misleading  to  call  the  child  an  organism  as 
it  is  stimulating  to  discover  correspondences  be- 
tween the  unfolding  of  his  self -activity  and  the 
growth  of  plants  and  animals.  The  child's  body 
is  an  organism  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  for 


DEVELOPMENT.  23 

it  is  ^'  a  whole  composed  of  parts  which  are  re- 
ciprocally means  and  ends  ^' ;  his  mind  is  not  an 
organism,  for  it  is  not  composed  of  parts,  neither 
is  it  separable  into  distinct  faculties.  It  is  a  self- 
active  energy,  having  different  phases  of  mani- 
festation, but  present  wholly  in  each  phase.  It 
expresses  itself  in  feeling,  thought,  and  will,  but 
there  is  no  feeling  in  which  thought  and  will  are 
not  latent — no  true  thought  which  does  not  incite 
a  corresponding  feeling  and  issue  in  an  act — no 
genuine  deed  which  is  not  the  embodiment  alike 
of  feeling  and  of  thought.  "Living  (feeling), 
acting,  conceiving,'^  said  Froebel,  "  form  a  triple 
chord  within  each  child  of  man,  though  the 
sound,  now  of  this  string,  now  of  that,  and  then 
again  of  two  together,  may  often  preponderate.'^  * 

Keeping  carefully  in  mind  their  merely  sym- 
bolic character,  physical  correspondences  may  be 
found  helpful  in  the  study  of  spiritual  growth. 
Availing  myself  of  this  help,  I  shall  endeavor  in 
the  following  pages  to  point  out  the  conditions 
of  development,  its  successive  stages,  its  essential 
characteristics,  and  its  conformity  to  ideal  types. 

The  most  obvious  correspondence  between  the 
unfolding  of  the  mind  and  the  growth  of  organ- 
isms is  that  in  both  the  condition  of  development 
is  exercise  of  power.    Use  and  disuse,  long  since 

*  Aus  Froebel's  Leben,  p.  142. 


24  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

recognized  in  the  parable  of  the  talents  as  the 
sources  of  spiritual  gain  and  loss,  have  in  our 
day  come  to  be  insisted  upon  as  the  sources  of  all 
gain  and  all  loss.  Use  gives  the  blacksmith  his 
brawny  arm,  the  musician  his  nimble  and  flexible 
fingers,  and  the  thinker  his  power  of  marshaling 
at  will  the  battalions  of  his  ideas.  Disuse  takes 
from  the  caged  bird  the  power  of  flight,  from  the 
sedentary  student  the  vigor  of  his  limbs,  from 
the  man  who  indolently  refuses  to  think  and  act 
the  power  of  thought  and  action.  Pestalozzi 
struck  the  keynote  of  educational  reform  when 
he  wrote,  in  the  Evening  Hour  of  a  Hermit : 
"  Nature  develops  all  the  powers  of  humanity  by 
exercising  them ;  they  increase  with  use.^^ 

But  though  exercise  is  the  indispensable  con- 
dition of  development,  not  all  exercise  is  devel- 
oping. The  bird  that  flies  too  soon  cripples  its 
wings ;  the  child  who  walks  too  soon  deforms  his 
legs.  Only  that  exercise  which  is  proportioned 
to  strength  increases  strength.  All  other  is  pro- 
ductive of  harm. 

Again,  as  an  organism  has  many  members,  it 
is  very  easy  through  the  undue  exercise  of  one 
member  to  dwarf  and  even  destroy  others.  In 
like  manner  mind  may  be  deformed  by  the  exag- 
geration of  single  phases  of  its  activity.  The 
undue  exercise  of  thought  dulls  feeling  and  weak- 


DEVELOPMENT.  25 

ens  will.  The  undue  exercise  of  will  contracts 
thought  and  so  centralizes  feeling  as  to  impair 
social  sympathy.  The  undue  exercise  of  feeling 
dissolves  thought  into  dreams  and  sinks  will 
into  vain  desire.  Nor  is  this  all :  for  the  abstract 
exercise  of  a  single  power,  by  weakening  others, 
finally  destroys  itself.  Isolated  from  feeling  and 
will,  thought  congeals  into  formulas ;  isolated 
from  thought  and  will,  feeling  relapses  into  mere 
sensation;  isolated  from  thought  and  thought- 
illumined  feeling,  will  petrifies  into  mechanical 
habit,  or  loses  itself  in  the  delirium  of  caprice. 
The  harmonious  development  of  mind  implies, 
therefore,  the  equipoise  of  its  several  phases  of 
activity. 

To  these  generally  recognized  conditions  of 
development  must  be  added  one  upon  which 
Froebel  placed  great  stress.  A  physical  organ- 
ism develops  by  converting  material  appropri- 
ated from  its  environment  into  vegetable  cells 
or  animal  tissues.  In  other  words,  it  assimilates 
foreign  material,  and  by  assimilation  impresses 
upon  this  material  its  own  image.  In  the  for- 
mative instinct  of  childhood  Froebel  discerned 
an  analogous  attempt  of  mind  to  stamp  itself 
upon  its  environment.  The  child  is  constantly 
trying  either  to  change  something  or  to  make 
something.     This  persistent  effort  hints  to  us 


26  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

that  mind  is  something  more  than  an  intellectual 
stomach.  Knowledge  is  food,  but  creation  is  life, 
and  we  do  not  live  to  eat,  but  eat  to  live. 

Even  as  I  write,  I  am  conscious  of  stating 
a  half  truth.  For  if  it  be  true  that  the  end  of 
knowledge  is  creation,  it  is  at  least  equally  true 
that  the  end  of  creation  is  knowledge.  In  the 
products  of  his  activity  man  beholds  himself 
as  in  a  mirror.  Creation,  therefore,  culminates 
in  revelation.  Froebel  never  loses  sight  of  these 
two  aspects  of  mind ;  and  if  he  tells  us  that 
^^  man  made  in  the  image  of  God  must  from  the 
beginning  of  life  be  conceived  and  treated  as  a 
creative  being,''  he  insists  with  equal  force  that 
'^  to  become  conscious  of  self  is  the  first  business 
of  the  child  and  the  whole  business  of  man.'' 

A  second  correspondence  between  physical 
and  mental  growth  may  be  found  in  the  fact 
that,  while  each  stage  of  development  has  its  own 
marked  and  characteristic  features,  it  always  de- 
pends upon  that  which  precedes  and  foreshadows 
that  which  follows  it.  "  The  fundamental  law  of 
vegetable  life,"  says  Froebel, "  is  that  each  suc- 
cessive stage  of  development  is  a  higher  growth 
of  the  preceding  one — e.  g.,  the  petals  are  trans- 
formed ordinary  leaves,  the  stamens  and  pistils 
transformed  petals.  Each  successive  formation 
presents  the  essential  nature  of  the  plant  in  a 


DEVELOPMENT.  27 

more  subtile  garb,  until  at  last  it  seems  clothed 
only  in  a  delicate  perfume/'  *  In  like  manner 
we  may  say  of  the  mind,  that  its  so-called  "  facul- 
ties "  are  not  separate  and  independent  powers, 
but  manifestations  of  ascending  degrees  of  con- 
sciousness. It  is  interesting  in  this  connection  to 
note  that  Goethe — whose  novel  Wilhelm  Meister 
is  the  greatest  book  on  education  ever  written — 
was  also  one  of  the  discoverers  of  plant  metamor- 
phosis. Possibly  he  may  have  been  thinking  of 
the  parallel  between  the  two  orders  of  develop- 
ment when  he  called  flowers  "  the  beautiful  hie- 
roglyphics of  Nature.^^ 

The  greatest  mistakes  in  education  are  rooted 
in  the  failure  to  recognize  and  conform  to  the 
different  stages  of  natural  development.  Educa- 
tional theorists  are  constantly  pointing  out  this 
error ;  educational  practice  is  constantly  repeat- 
ing it.  Notwithstanding  all  that  has  been  said 
and  written,  we  still  make  knowledge  our  idol, 
and  continue  to  fill  the  child's  mind  with  foreign 
material,  under  the  gratuitous  assumption  that 
at  a  later  age  he  will  be  able,  through  some 
magic  transubstantiation,  to  make  it  a  vital  part 
of  his  own  thought.  This  is  like  loading  his 
stomach  with  food  which  he  can  not  digest, 
under  the  delusive  hope  that  he  may  be  able  to 

*  Education  of  Man,  Hailmann's  translation,  p.  194, 
4 


28  *      SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

digest  it  when  he  is  a  man.  It  is  forcing  the 
mind  to  move  painfully  forward  under  a  heavy 
weight,  instead  of  running,  leaping,  and  flying 
under  the  incitement  of  its  own  energy  and  the 
allurement  of  its  own  perceived  ideal. 

Thus  to  load  the  young  mind  is  a  grievous  sin ; 
but  we  commit  a  yet  more  heinous  offense  when 
we  insist  upon  the  exercise  of  faculties  whose 
normal  development  belongs  to  a  later  age.  The 
child  is  sympathetic,  perceptive,  and  imaginative, 
but  he  is  incapable  of  sustained  observation  and 
repelled  by  analysis  and  logical  inference.  The 
very  flowers  he  loves  so  dearly  become  mere  in- 
struments of  mental  torture  when  we  constantly 
insist  upon  his  analyzing  and  classifying  them. 
The  attempt  to  force  a  premature  activity  of  rea- 
son can  result  only  in  the  repulsion  of  his  sym- 
pathies and  the  stultification  of  his  mind.* 

But  glaring  as  are  our  sins  of  commission, 
they  pale  before  our  sins  of  omission ;  for,  while 
we  are  forcing  upon  the  child's  mind  knowledge 


*  It  may  be  well  to  point  out  the  distinction  between  con- 
scious and  unconscious  reasoning.  Doubtless  a  great  deal  of 
unconscious  reasoning  goes  on  in  the  mind  of  the  child.  Rea- 
son is  also  immanent  in  feeling  and  instinct.  Dr.  Harris  has 
shown  that  sense-perception  is  an  unconscious  syllogistic 
process.  (See  his  Thoughts  on  Educational  Psychology.)  Edu- 
cation, however,  should  deal  with  powers  only  as  they  become 
explicit. 


DEVELOPMENT.  29 

which  has  no  roots  in  his  experience,  or  calling 
on  him  to  exercise  still  dormant  powers,  we 
refuse  any  aid  to  his  spontaneous  struggle  to 
do  and  learn  and  be  that  which  his  stage  of  de- 
velopment demands.  We  paralyze  the  spirit 
of  investigation  by  indifference  to  the  child's 
questions,  clip  the  wings  of  imagination  by  not 
responding  to  his  poetic  fancies,  kill  artistic 
effort  by  scorning  its  crude  results,  and  freeze 
sympathy  by  coldness  to  its  appeal.  Thus  re- 
maining an  alien  to  the  child's  life  and  forcing 
upon  the  child  a  life  that  is  foreign  to  him,  we 
sow  in  weak  natures  the  seeds  of  formalism  and 
hypocrisy,  and  so  antagonize  the  strong  natures 
that  we  tempt  them  to  become  intellectual  and 
moral  outlaws. 

In  all  attempts  to  conform  to  the  different 
stages  of  natural  development  we  must,  however, 
be  careful  to  recognize  the  fact  that  they  pass 
into  each  other  by  insensible  gradations.  One  of 
the  clearest  marks  of  Rousseau's  atomism  is  that 
he  so  completely  isolates  the  different  periods  of 
life  as  to  lose  the  identity  of  his  imaginary  pupil; 
and  it  has  been  well  said  that  the  Emile  of  the 
last  three  books  is  an  entirely  different  person 
from  the  Emile  of  the  first  two.  Froebel,  on  the 
contrary,  perceived  clearly  that  ^^differences  in 
kind  result  from  the  graduall  accumulation  of 


30  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

differences  in  degree/^  and  the  idea  of  continuity 
in  education  is  scarcely  less  dear  to  him  than 
that  of  creative  self -activity.  "  Sharp  limits  and 
definite  subdivisions  within  the  continuous  series 
of  the  years  of  development^^  are,  he  declares, 
"  highly  pernicious  and  even  destructive  in  their 
influence '' ;  and  he  is  perpetually  seeking  for  the 
transitions  through  which  the  lower  faculties  of 
the  mind  are  merged  in  the  higher,  as  well  as 
for  the  transitions  through  which  the  different 
objects  of  experience  may  be  connected  into  a 
living  whole.  His  insight  into  the  truth  that 
evolution  "  proceeds  by  numerous,  successive,  and 
slight  modifications"  makes  him  the  pedagogic 
exponent  of  the  Zeitgeist  of  our  age;  and  all 
teachers  who  are  interested  in  the  "developing 
method  "  should  study  his  writings  and  acquaint 
themselves  practically  with  his  games,  gifts,  and 
occupations. 

To  Froebel  the  most  interesting  correspond- 
ence between  the  unfolding  of  thought  and  the 
growth  of  plants  and  animals  lay  in  the  char- 
acteristics which  constitute  the  very  idea  of  de- 
velopment. Comparing  the  mind  of  the  young 
child  with  that  of  the  mature  and  educated  man, 
we  find  that  the  former  has  few  ideas,  and  that 
such  as  he  has  are  abstract,  indefinite,  and  held 
in  isolation  the  one  from  the  other;  while  the 


DEVELOPMENT.  31 

latter  not  only  possesses  an  infinitude  of  partic- 
ular thoughts,  but  has  articulated  these  thoughts 
into  a  systematized  unity.  In  like  manner,  or- 
ganisms develop  by  an  advance  in  structure  from 
the  homogeneous  to  the  heterogeneous,  their 
growth  beginning  in  the  differentiation  of  an 
originally  uniform  germ,  and  through  a  continu- 
ous repetition  of  this  process  completing  itself  in 
the  production  of  a  membered  totality  in  whose 
maintenance  an  almost  countless  number  of  or- 
gans find  their  own  fulfillment.  In  other  words, 
as  thought  unfolds  by  dissolving  an  ever-increas- 
ing multiplicity  of  differences  into  a  higher  unity 
of  self -consciousness,  so  an  organism  develops  by 
"working  out  diversities  of  member,  form,  and 
function,  and  at  the  same  time  in  the  very  act  of 
differentiating,  reintegrating  its  diversities  into 
the  common  unity .^^  *  To  this  correspondence 
Froebel  is  perpetually  recurring,  and  occasion- 
ally his  manner  of  stating  it  gives  color  to  the 
idea  that  he  borrowed  the  law  of  development 
from  Nature,  and,  making  the  "  tree  his  tutor,'^ 
learned  from  physical  organisms  how  to  aid  the 
mind  in  its  struggle  to  become  actually  what  it 
is  ideally.  But  the  careful  study  of  Froebel's 
works  revolutionizes  this  opinion.  He  was  not 
one  of  those  who  love  to  find  "  natural  law  in  the 

*  See  Caird's  Philosophy  of  Religion,  p.  108. 


32  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

spiritual  world/'  but  rather  one  who  only  cared 
for  Nature  because  he  had  penetrated  her  dis- 
guise and  beheld  in  all  her  varying  forms  the 
shining  lineaments  of  mind.  "There  exists  no 
other  energy/^  he  once  said, "  but  that  of  thought. 
The  law  of  thought  is  the  law  of  the  Cosmos.""  * 
And,  again,  he  wrote  to  Krause,  the  philosopher, 
"  I  consider  the  movement  from  analysis  to  syn- 
thesis, which  I  find  in  pure  thought,  as  the  type 
and  law  of  all  development.''^  t 

The  practical  bearing  of  the  thoughts  just 
considered  is  obvious.  If  education  is  to  con- 
form to  the  natural  process  of  development  it 
must  seek  in  childhood  to  quicken  sympathy  and 
enlarge  the  range  of  perception.  It  must  aid  the 
boy  to  find  the  relations  between  observed  facts, 
while  to  the  youth  it  should  reveal  the  unity 
underlying  these  relations,  and  gradually  lead 
him  in  each  department  of  study  to  "see  the 
whole  in  the  part.''  Finally,  as  the  youth  ma- 
tures, it  should  discover  to  him  the  implications 
of  all  knowledge,  and  through  philosophy — "  the 
science  of  sciences" — teach  him  to  combine  all 
partial  wholes  into  one  great  totality.  Other- 
wise his  thought  will  resemble  "  not  a  connected 

*  Wichard   Lange's    Darlegung    der  Grundidee   Froebel's, 
p.  12. 

t  Aus  Froebel's  Leben,  p.  140. 


DEVELOPMENT.  33 

structure,  but  an  aggregate  of  chambers,  from 
none  of  which  he  can  enter  the  others — a  build- 
ing wherein  he  must  always  get  lost  and  can 
never  feel  himself  at  home/^  * 

Though  the  correspondences  thus  far  con- 
sidered shed  some  light  upon  the  nature,  the  con- 
ditions, and  the  stages  of  mental  evolution,  our 
ideal  of  education  as  the  harmonious  develop- 
ment of  inherent  powers  remains  very  vague; 
for  without  a  standard  by  which  development 
may  be  tested,  how  can  we  know  whether  it  is  or 
is  not  harmonious  ?  A  new  analogy  may  shed 
light  upon  our  difficulty.  Returning  to  the 
plant,  we  observe  that  in  its  growth  it  always 
conforms  to  the  model  of  its  species.  Its  roots 
and  stalk,  its  branches  and  leaves,  its  flowers  and 
fruit  express  in  various  forms  the  compulsion  of 
an  ideal  type.  Pondering  this  fact,  we  seem  to 
catch  from  Nature  a  hint  that  the  harmonious 
development  of  man  must  mean  the  gradual  pro- 
duction in  the  individual  of  the  image  of  the  race. 
That  this  hint  may  not  mislead  us,  we  must  how- 
ever qualify  it  by  considering  the  vast  differ- 
ence between  the  relationship  of  a  particular 
plant  to  its  species  and  the  relationship  between 
individual  man  and  the  human  race.    Through- 

*  Fichte's  Science  of  Knowledge. 


34  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

out  the  physical  realm  the  particular  illustrates 
the  universal,  but  is  never  coextensive  with  it, 
and  just  on  this  account  Nature  shows  us  no  true 
and  abiding  individuals.  As  a  merely  natural 
being,  man  is  subject  to  the  same  limitation,  and 
the  human  species  falls  apart  into  races,  these 
into  tribes,  and  tribes  into  mutually  excluding 
individuals,  each  one  of  whom  is  a  more  or  less 
defective  specimen  of  the  general  type.  In  mind, 
on  the  contrary,  the  generic  energy  is  one  with 
its  product,  and  hence  the  ideal  self  in  each  man 
is  identical  with  the  ideal  self  in  every  other 
man.  Spiritual  humanity  is  not  a  whole  com- 
posed of  parts,  but  a  whole  composed  of  wholes ; 
a  totality  wherein  each  individual  is  also  total. 
Therefore,  white  men,  red  men,  and  black  men — 
men  of  the  tropics  and  men  of  the  poles — may 
learn  to  think  the  same  thoughts  and  to  obey  the 
same  ideals.  Instinctive  faith  in  this  spiritual 
unity  of  mankind  inflames  missionary  zeal  and 
carries  to  cannibal  savages  the  message  of 
"  peace  and  good  will.'^  Animated  by  the  same 
faith,  each  one  of  us  claims  his  portion  in  the 
vision  of  the  poet,  the  triumph  of  the  hero,  and 
the  prayer  of  the  saint : 

"  I  am  the  owner  of  the  sphere, 
Of  the  seven  stars  and  the  solar  year, 
Of  Caesar's  hand  and  Plato's  brain, 
Of  Lord  Christ's  heart  and  Shakespeare's  strain." 


DEVELOPMENT.  35 

Proebel  expresses  this  relationship  of  man  to 
mankind  by  the  somewhat  untranslatable  word 
Gliedganzes  (member-whole) — a  word  we  shall 
probably  have  to  adopt  from  the  German,  as  we 
have  already  adopted  the  word  Kindergarten. 
Imaging  humanity  as  an  organic  whole,  he  con- 
ceives the  individual,  on  the  one  hand,  as  a 
member  of  this  organism,  and  on  the  other  as 
the  organism  itself  in  its  ideal  totality.  Individ- 
ual man  is  but  a  leaf  upon  the  tree  Yggdrasill, 
yet  potentially  he  is  himself  that  great  world- 
ash.  He  is,  however,  the  whole  only  in  virtue  of 
the  fact  that  he  is  also  the  member;  or,  stated 
differently,  he  realizes  his  ideal  nature  through 
participation  in  the  life  of  mankind.  Moreover, 
since  physical  evolution  culminates  in  man,  the 
reproduction  of  the  race  within  the  individual 
makes  actual  the  ideal  under  whose  blind  im- 
pulsion Nature  mounts  the  ascending  spires  of 
being.  And  as  generic  humanity  fulfills  and  in- 
terprets Nature,  Nature  must  be  the  prophecy 
and  symbol  of  mind.  Therefore,  man  may  find 
intimations  of  his  own  being  in  the  course  of  the 
stars  and  the  fall  of  the  stone,  in  the  shining 
world  of  crystals  and  the  circular  process  of  or- 
ganic life. 

The  longer  we  reflect  upon  Froebers  defini- 
tion of  man  as  Gliedganzes  the  more  sugges- 


36  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

tive  it  becomes.  Concentrating  attention  first 
■upon  that  phase  of  the  definition  which  affirms 
that  each  man  is  ideally  mankind,  there  dawns 
slowly  upon  us  the  vision  of  mind  as  a  generic 
and  therefore  self -creative  energy.  We  picture 
to  ourselves  a  musician,  who  is  also  the  instru- 
ment he  uses  and  the  symphony  he  plays;  a 
sulptor,  who  is  himself  the  clay  he  models  and  the 
statue  he  produces ;  a  master-builder,  who  is  also 
the  quarry  whence  comes  his  marble  and  the 
temple  he  rears.  Then,  as  our  thought  grows 
clearer,  we  throw  away  our  pictures  of  the  un- 
picturable,  and,  gazing  directly  upon  the  miracle 
of  mind,  behold  an  energy  which,  acting  upon 
itself  as  material,  realizes  itself  as  result;  an 
energy  self -impelling,  self-fulfilling,  and  self- 
revealing  ;  an  energy  which  starting  from  itself 
returns  to  itself  only  to  be  incited  to  fresh  wan- 
derings which  culminate  in  deeper  returns ;  in  a 
word,  an  energy  which,  in  the  most  literal  sense, 
"  is  what  it  makes  itself  to  be '' — a  self-product. 

Very  wonderful  is  this  vision  of  mind,  but  we 
may  not  dwell  upon  it,  for  the  Gliedganzes  has 
other  secrets  to  reveal.  It  is  the  paradox  of  mind, 
that  while  free  and  self -creative  it  yet  implies  re- 
lationship. It  is  independent  but  not  solitary. 
To  be  social  is  its  nature,  and  a  mind  existing 
apart  from  and  out  of  relation  to  other  minds  is 


DEVELOPMENT.  37 

a  logical  impossibility.  Indeed,  mind  is  in  no 
sense  a  possession  of  the  individual,  but  a  uni- 
versal energy  in  which  all  individuals  partici- 
pate. As  Dante  teaches  us  in  the  Purgatory, 
spiritual  energies  grow  by  giving,  by  spending 
are  increased,  and  in  the  distribution  of  spiritual 
food  the  miracle  of  the  loaves  and  the  fishes  is 
perpetually  renewed.  The  more  thought  com- 
municates itself,  the  more  truly  it  possesses  it- 
self ;  the  more  completely  love  loses  itself  in  its 
object,  the  more  surely  does  it  find  its  own  fulfill- 
ment. Only  through  membership  and  the  com- 
munion which  membership  implies  does  man 
make  actual  his  ideal  nature ;  only  in  so  far  as 
he  becomes  universal  is  he  in  any  true  sense 
individual. 

"  Man,^^  says  Plato,  in  the  Timseus,  ^'  is  a  plant 
not  of  an  earthly  but  of  a  heavenly  growth ;  .  .  . 
and  the  divine  power  suspended  the  head  and 
root  of  him  from  that  place  where  the  genera- 
tion of  the  soul  first  began.  .  .  .  There  is  only  one 
way,"  he  adds,  '^  in  which  one  being  can  attend 
on  another,  and  this  is  by  giving  him  his  natural 
food  and  motion.  And  the  motions  which  are 
naturally  akin  to  the  divine  principle  within  us 
are  the  thoughts  and  revolutions  of  the  uni- 
verse." Can  we  find  anywhere  a  truer  descrip- 
tion of  man,  a  higher  definition  of  education  ? 


88  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

Man  is  a  tree,  whose  roots  are  in  the  sky.  He 
must  be  nourished  by  ideals.  These  ideals  are 
revealed  to  him  in  "  the  thoughts  and  revolutions 
of  the  universe.^^  They  also  constitute  his  own 
inmost  selfhood.  In  the  symbols  of  Nature,  the 
institutions  of  society,  the  achievement  of  his- 
tory, and  the  products  of  literature  and  art,  man 
is  confronted  by  his  own  ideal  self.  Wandering 
away  from  himself  into  these  seemingly  foreign 
realms,  the  individual  for  the  first  time  finds 
himself  at  home. 

As  man  receives  from  mankind  the  ideals 
through  which  he  realizes  his  own  implicit  na- 
ture, it  is  evident  that  he  is  creative  only  in  so 
far  as  he  is  receptive.  He  produces  himself  by 
reproducing  humanity  within  himself.  We  must, 
therefore,  qualify  the  illustrations  above  given 
by  saying  that  he  is  a  true  musician  only  if,  like 
St.  Cecilia,  he  has  first  heard  the  heavenly  mu- 
sic ;  a  true  sculptor  only  if  his  statue  conforms 
to  "  the  measure  of  a  man  ^^ ;  a  true  builder  only 
in  so  far  as  the  temple  he  rears  is  like  unto  "  the 
pattern  shown  in  the  mount." 

It  may  be  urged  that,  since  the  cosmic  ideal 
can  not  be  made  actual  in  the  individual  in  any 
finite  time,  our  definition  of  education  is  not  a 
practical  one.  The  question,  however,  is  not  one 
of  reaching  a  goal,  but  of  moving  toward  it. 


DEVELOPMENT.  39 

When  Margaret  Fuller  somewhat  condescend- 
ingly remarked  to  Carlyle  that  "  she  accepted  the 
universe/^  he  answered  grimly,  "  It  was  as  well 
she  did/'  There  is  a  mine  of  wisdom  in  this  cnrt 
rejoinder.  We  can  make  no  headway  against 
the  stream  of  universal  tendency ;  or,  more  de- 
voutly stated,  unless  we  conspire  with  Provi- 
dence all  our  educational  effort  must  prove  futile. 
"It  is  a  sufficient  account,"  says  Emerson,  "of 
that  appearance  we  call  the  world  that  God  will 
teach  a  human  mind.''  The  true  educator  is  he 
who  clearly  discerns  the  divine  ideal  and  shapes 
his  own  effort  in  accordance  therewith.  It  needs, 
moreover,  only  a  moment's  reflection  to  assure  us 
that  no  matter  how  we  define  education,  it  is  a 
process  which  implies  eternity  for  its  realization. 
In  the  fact  that  man  is  susceptible  of  education 
lies  the  assurance  of  his  immortality.  On  the 
other  hand,  in  that  man  has  a  sense  of  imperfec- 
tion, he  shows  that  there  is  in  him  even  now  a 
standard  of  perfection.  He  knows  himself  as 
ignorant  because  he  has  an  ideal  of  knowledge, 
and  as  evil  because  he  has  an  ideal  of  holiness. 
This  perception  of  his  limit  proves  that  he  has 
already  annulled  it.  Hence,  while  in  one  sense 
he  has  infinite  realms  to  conquer,  in  another 
sense  these  realms  are  already  his.  The  process 
of  education,  therefore,  is  one  wherein  the  peace 


40  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

of  possession  is  combined  with  the  ardor  of  pur- 
suit, and  through  all  the  struggle  of  the  passing 
years  man  may  enjoy  the  "  holy  carelessness  of 
the  everlasting  now" 

But  the  individual  is  not  only  total  humanity 
in  embryo ;  he  is  also  a  particular  man,  a  being 
with  sentiments,  caprices,  and  opinions  peculiar 
to  himself.  Though  ideally  the  world-ash  Ygg- 
drasill,  he  is  also  one  of  its  countless  leaves — has 
the  leaf  nature  as  well  as  the  tree  nature,  and  is 
thus  actually  partial  while  potentially  universal. 
His  nature  is  inherently  a  self-contradiction,  and 
education,  in  its  deepest  sense,  is  the  process 
through  which  this  contradiction  is  canceled. 

Arrived  at  this  point  in  the  study  of  man^s 
complex  being,  we  begin  to  suspect  that  develop- 
ment is  something  more  than  the  mere  unfolding 
of  inherent  powers,  and  that  the  process  by  which 
man  ascends  into  the  species  (or,  in  other  words, 
makes  actual  his  own  ideal)  is  not  adequately 
described  even  by  the  word  self -production,  but 
involves  also  the  idea  of  self-annihilation.  Again 
recurring  to  the  musician  and  artist,  we  must 
now  insist  that  man  becomes  musical  by  over- 
coming discord  and  achieves  beauty  through  the 
slow  transformation  of  original  ugliness.  It  is 
by  slaying  caprice  that  he  attains  rational  will, 
by  renouncing  opinion  that  he  gains  truth,  by 


DEVELOPMENT.  41 

crucifying  selfishness  that  he  conquers  selfhood. 
The  countless  fox  princes  and  frog  princes  of 
fairyland  who  go  about  seeking  for  a  benevolent 
murderer,  because  only  by  dying  as  animals  can 
they  regain  their  royal  state,  are  true  types  of 
the  particular  man  who,  like  them,  must  die  that 
the  universal  man  may  live. 

Renunciation,  self-surrender,  self-abnegation 
— how  familiar  the  words,  yet  how  they  dilate 
with  ever- widening  meaning !  To  the  Hindu 
devotee,  renunciation  means  the  slaying  not  only 
of  selfishness  but  of  self -consciousness :  when  he 
has  so  paralyzed  his  body  that  he  feels  no  sensa- 
tion, and  so  paralyzed  his  mind  that  he  has  no 
thought,  then,  and  not  till  then,  has  he  attained 
Nirvana.  To  the  monkish  ascetic,  renunciation 
means  the  sacrifice  of  this  world  for  the  pos- 
session of  the  world  to  come.  To  the  man  of 
science,  it  means  the  surrender  of  his  most  dar- 
ling theory  to  the  stern  reality  of  facts ;  to  the 
hero,  the  merging  of  self  in  his  cause;  to  the 
patriot,  the  sacrifice  of  life  upon  the  altar  of  his 
country.  To  the  humble  saint,  it  means  the  sur- 
render of  his  will  to  his  Saviour,  and  of  his  life 
to  the  service  of  his  brother ;  to  the  mystic,  the 
sinking  of  himself  in  God,  that  he  may  find  God 
in  himself.  Finally,  to  the  Christian  philoso- 
pher, renunciation  is  a  phase  in  the  process  of 


42  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

self -realization,  the  ascent  of  the  individual  into 
the  species  by  the  way  of  the  cross.  Further- 
more, the  philosopher  recognizes  in  such  ascent 
the  incarnation  of  the  divine  in  the  human,  and 
with  this  insight  interprets  the  "  dramatic  tend- 
ency ^^  of  Nature,  as  the  striving  of  Nature  to 
become  man,  and  knows  that  the  ^'  lifting  of  the 
manhood  into  God  ^^  shall  be  the  goal  of  history ; 
is,  indeed,  the  "  far-off  divine  event  to  which  the 
whole  creation  moves.^^ 

One  aspect  of  the  Gliedganzes  remains  to  be 
considered.  We  have  seen  that  individual  de- 
velopment means  a  progressive  conformity  to  the 
generic  type.  It  is  evident,  however,  that  even 
in  the  race  this  type  is  very  imperfectly  realized, 
and  that  humanity,  as  a  whole,  is  itself  in  a  pro- 
cess of  evolution.  This  fact  suggests  another 
implication  in  the  idea  of  membership.  The  in- 
dividual who  reaps  the  rich  result  of  mankind^s 
vicarious  struggle  is  in  duty  bound  to  augment 
his  inheritance.  As  he  has  freely  received,  he 
must  freely  give,  and,  by  adding  to  the  store  of 
human  experience  some  mite  of  knowledge  or 
some  atom  of  achievement,  swell  the  treasure 
which  is  to  be  lavished  upon  coming  men. 

Perhaps  the  most  touching  passage  in  all  lit- 
erature is  that  in  which  the  hero  of  Troy  prays 
for  a  son  more  heroic  than  himself.    Gladly  will 


DEVELOPMENT.  43 

Hector  die  in  battle  with  the  Greeks  if  the  gods 
grant  that  his  son  may  rule  nobly  in  Ilium.  The 
glory  of  living  is  to  transmit  a  higher  life.  The 
dying  flame  burns  on  in  the  brighter  flame  which 
it  has  kindled. 

The  prayer  of  the  hero  utters  the  craving 
of  all  human  hearts.  Everywhere  man  strives 
and  toils  to  make  his  children  better  than  him- 
self. Ignorance  is  ambitious  that  its  children 
shall  be  wise,  and  Sin  rarely  so  sinful  as  not 
to  pray  that  its  babes  may  be  unstained.  And 
what  father  and  mother  crave  for  their  chil- 
dren, each  generation  as  a  whole  craves  for  the 
generations  that  are  to  follow  it.  It  looks  to 
the  young  life  which  it  has  borne  and  cradled 
to  make  facts  of  its  aspirations  and  realities  of 
its  dreams.  For  the  young  it  crowns  again  the 
discrowned  illusions  of  youth  and  sets  up  once 
more  the  broken  altars  of  its  faith.  Humanity 
declares  its  unity  by  living  forever  in  the  future. 
Only  man  plants  that  posterity  may  reap,  suffers 
that  posterity  may  enjoy,  dies  that  posterity  may 
live,  and  ever  the  highest  hero  goes  out  into  the 
battle  of  the  age,  praying,  as  he  looks  upon  the 
young.  ^^May  they  say  these  men  are  nobler  than 
their  fathers  were ! " 

It  is  in  the  conception  of  man  as  Gliedganzes 
that  Froebel  advances  beyond  Pestalozzi.    Domi- 


44  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

nated  by  the  atomistic  view  of  man,  Pestalozzi 
was  never  able  to  grasp  the  significance  of  social 
institutions.  In  his  Inquiry  into  the  Course  of 
Nature  in  the  Development  of  the  Human  Race 
he  assumes  three  states  of  man — an  original  state 
of  nature,  a  transitional  social  state,  a  final  moral 
state.  The  moral  state  is  reached,  however,  not 
by  a  reaction  of  the  social  state  upon  the  indi- 
vidual but  by  the  individuars  self -emancipation 
from  its  influence.  ^'  The  moral  man  is  not  the 
work  of  society.^^  "  The  kindliness  and  straight- 
forwardness of  the  animal  man  are  replaced  in 
the  social  man  by  ill  will  and  cunning.'^  "  The 
social  state,  bringing  with  it  on  the  one  hand  a 
spirit  of  dominion,  and  on  the  other  hand  a  state 
of  subjection,  indefinitely  increases  men's  natural 
inequalities  as  well  as  their  pride  and  ambition." 
Finally,  "  while  the  religion  of  the  natural  man 
is  idolatry,  that  of  the  social  man  is  deceit." 
"True  religion  exists  for  the  moral  man  alone, 
for  man  can  only  find  God  by  the  searchings  of 
his  own  heart,  and  in  so  far  as  he  still  preserves 
God's  image  in  himself."  * 

Very  evidently  with  such  views  it  was  impos- 
sible for  Pestalozzi  to  see  in  institutions  the 
revelation  of  man's  larger  selfhood,  and,  failing 

*  See  the  summing  up  of  the  Inquiry  in  the  excellent  biog- 
raphy of  Pestalozzi  by  Roger  de  Guimps,  pp.  113-115. 


DEVELOPMExNT.  45 

this  vision,  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  define 
the  ^^  harmonious  development  which  was  his 
ideal  of  education.  Therefore  his  educational 
experiments,  while  suggestive,  were  always  felt 
by  competent  observers  to  be  disappointing,  and 
his  methods  merited  the  criticism  of  crudeness 
and  empiricism  which  Froebel  made  upon  them. 
Pestalozzi  lets  us  into  the  secret  of  his  life 
and  work  when  he  says,  "  Through  my  heart  I 
am  what  I  am.'^  He  was  an  educator  because  he 
was  a  philanthropist.  He  pleaded  for  universal 
education  because  he  saw  therein  the  only  effect- 
ive means  of  lessening  human  misery.  As  he 
tells  us  in  the  Song  of  the  Swan,  he  "  desired  at 
first  nothing  else  than  to  render  the  ordinary 
means  of  instruction  so  simple  as  to  permit  of 
their  being  employed  in  every  family."  Search- 
ing for  the  elements  of  particular  branches  of 
instruction,  he  was  led  to  ask  what  were  the 
prime  elements  of  all  knowledge.  Finding  in 
number,  form,  and  words  the  "  alphabet  of  know- 
ing,''  he  sought  to  supplement  it  by  an  "  alphabet 
of  doing,"  but  in  the  attempt  to  find  the  elements 
of  technical  skill  he  was  confessedly  a  failure. 
From  the  search  for  the  elements  of  knowledge 
and  skill  there  was  an  easy  transition  to  the 
thought  of  the  germinal  activities  of  mind  and  to 
the  definition  of  education  as  the  ^^  development 


46  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

of  inherent  powers."  Finally,  enlightened  by  the 
endeavor  '^  to  psychologize  education/'  Pestalozzi 
perceived  that  "the  forces  of  the  heart,  faith 
and  love,  do  for  immortal  man  what  the  root 
does  for  the  tree,"  and  that  "the  center  and 
essential  principle  of  education  is  not  teaching, 
but  love."  With  these  recognitions  his  system 
attained  all  the  completeness  possible  without 
that  insight  into  the  relationship  between  the 
race  and  the  individual  which  discloses  the  sig- 
nificance of  institutions  and  unveils  the  meaning 
of  history. 

The  reverence  and  affection  which  all  men 
feel  for  Pestalozzi  is  accorded  neither  to  his 
theoretical  insight  nor  his  practical  achievement. 
Because  "he  lived  as  a  pauper  with  paupers  to 
teach  paupers  to  live  like  men,"  we  love  him. 
Because  he  first  dared  to  claim  for  all  men  the 
right  to  be  educated,  we  revere  him.  Upon  the 
strong  foundation  of  this  generous  claim  his 
fame  is  "builded  far  from  accident,"  and,  frankly 
admitting  that  his  psychology  is  false  and  his 
method  defective,  we  nevertheless  recognize  in 
him  the  noblest  example  the  world  has  yet  shown 
of  the  hero  as  educator. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Gliedganzes  has  been  a 
stumbling  stone  and  rock  of  offense  to  many  of 
FroebeFs  interpreters  and  critics.    By  some  he 


DEVELOPMENT.  47 

has  been  reproached  with  wasting  much  time  in 
unprofitable  speculations  about  parts  and  wholes. 
By  others  it  is  loudly  hinted  that  educational 
theories  are  of  slight  value,  and  that  our  sole 
practical  concern  is  with  methods  and  instru- 
mentalities.* Such  views  are  rooted  in  that  fa- 
vorite fallacy  of  half -fledged  minds  which  divorces 
practice  from  theory,  character  from  creed,  will 
from  intellect.  The  true  disciple  of  Froebel,  on 
the  contrary,  will  recognize  in  the  doctrine  of 
the  Gliedganzes  the  ripest  fruit  of  the  master^s 
thinking,  the  key  to  his  practical  endeavor,  and 
the  source  of  that  symbolism  which  is  his  most 
original  contribution  to  educational  science. 

Finally,  the  conception  of  man  as  Gliedganzes  \ 
of  humanity  supplies  a  standard  by  which  all 
systems  of  education  may  be  tested.  See  man  as 
a  whole  and  not  as  also  a  member,  and  you  have 
Rousseau's  atomic  Emile,  who  at  the  climax,  or 
rather,  anticlimax,  of  an  atomistic  education  re- 
marks to  his  atomic  tutor  that  for  such  a  su- 


*  Is  not  the  decrier  of  theories  himself  simply  a  theorist, 
whose  theory  is  that  there  should  be  no  theory? 

f  For  Froebel's  own  statements  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Glied- 
ganzes, see  Aus  Froebel's  Leben,  edited  by  Dr.  Wichard  Lange, 
p.  489;  Die  Menschen  Erziehung  und  Aufsatze  verschiedenen 
Inhalts,  edited  by  Dr.  Wichard  Lange,  p.  499  et  seq.  Padagogik 
des  Kindergartens,  Wichard  Lange,  pp.  2,  6,  87, 133,  152,  224, 
322,  324,  346. 


48  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

premely  independent  atom  as  himself  the  world 
of  organized  society  is  no  fit  place.  See  man  as 
member  and  not  also  as  whole^  and  you  lapse 
into  the  Orientalism  of  education ;  for,  granting 
validity  to  institutions  without  perceiving  that 
they  exist  both  in  and  for  the  individual,  you  see 
in  your  pupil  not  an  end  but  a  means,  and  strive 
not  to  develop  him  but  to  mold  him  by  ex- 
ternal pressure  into  a  prescribed  form.  See  man 
as  both  member  and  whole,  without  perceiving 
the  contradiction  therein  implied,  and  you  fall 
into  the  indolent  sentimentalism  whose  motto  is 
laissez-faire,  and  which  expects  development 
without  that  strife  of  opposing  forces  which  is 
its  inevitable  condition.  See  man  as  he  is — actu- 
ally a  member,  ideally  the  whole  of  humanity — 
the  incarnate  opposition  of  particular  and  uni- 
versal, and  you  define  truly  both  the  substance 
and  the  method  of  education.  For  its  substance 
is  the  experience  of  that  total  humanity  which  is 
the  ideal  self  of  the  pupil ;  its  method  such  in- 
citement of  his  self -activity  as  shall  impel  him 
to  renounce  indolence,  caprice,  and  vanity,  and 
to  reproduce  spontaneously  that  total  experience 
within  himself. 


III. 

THE  CHILDHOOD   OF  THE  RACE. 


"  Without  the  spiritual,  observe, 
The  natural's  impossible,  no  form, 
No  motion  ;  without  sensuous,  spiritual 
Is  inappreciable,  no  beauty  or  power ; 
And  in  this  twofold  sphere,  the  twofold  man 
(For  still  the  artist  is  intensely  a  man) 
Holds  firmly  by  the  natural  to  reach 
The  spiritual  beyond  it,  fixes  still 
The  type  with  mortal  vision  to  pierce  through 
"With  eyes  immortal  to  the  antetype 
Some  call  the  ideal,  better  called  the  real ; 
And  certain  to  be  called  so  presently 
When  things  shall  have  their  names." 

"  Every  natural  flower  which  grows  on  earth 
Implies  a  flower  upon  the  spiritual  side, 
Substantial,  archetypal,  all  aglow 
With  blossoming  causes,  not  so  far  away. 
But  we  whose  spirit  sense  is  somewhat  cleared 
May  catch  at  something  of  the  bloom  and  breath, 
Too  vaguely  apprehended,  though,  indeed. 
Still  apprehended,  consciously  or  not. 
And  still  transferred  to  picture,  music,  verse, 
Tor  thrilling  audient  and  beholding  souls." 

Aurora  Leigli^  Mrs.  Browning, 


^^    OF  THb"^^ 

fUHITEE 

CHAPTER  HI. 

THE  CHILDHOOD   OF  THE  RACE. 

The  conception  of  man  as  Oliedganzes  quick- 
ens our  sense  of  the  significance  of  history.  If 
humanity  is  neither  a  mere  aggregate  of  atomic 
individuals,  nor  a  mere  organism  whose  mem- 
bers, while  participating  in  the  life  of  the  whole, 
remain  forever  different  from  that  whole  and 
from  each  other;  if,  indeed,  it  is  a  spiritual 
unity  whose  essence,  "  communicable  but  not 
divisible,^^  exists  whole  and  entire  in  each  par- 
ticular man,  then  obviously  in  history  the  indi- 
vidual may  find  a  revelation  of  his  nature  and 
an  intimation  of  his  destiny.  History  paints 
life  on  a  wide  canvas  and  in  a  true  perspective. 
Through  its  study  man  separates  what  in  him- 
self is  essential  and  permanent  from  that  which 
is  accidental  and  transitory;  from  its  drift  he 
learns  the  direction  in  which  he  is  tending  and 
the  ends  he  blindly  seeks ;  in  its  achievement  he 
finds  the  solution  of  his  contradictions,  the  an- 


52  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

swers  to  his  enigmas,  and  the  vindication  of  his 
hopes. 

As  the  general  trend  of  history  suggests  the 
meaning  of  each  particular  life,  so  its  successive 
periods  offer  illuminating  correspondences  to 
the  ascending  stages  of  individual  development. 
Humanity  has  its  inarticulate  infancy ;  its  child- 
hood of  dreams  and  premonitions;  its  self-as- 
sertive, joyous,  aspiring,  and  speculative  youth ; 
its  manhood  of  sober  reflection  and  disciplined 
activity.  For  the  educator,  therefore,  the  study 
of  history,  and  particularly  the  study  of  its 
earlier  phases,  is  of  prime  importance.  In  the 
childhood  of  humanity  he  beholds  the  magnified 
image  of  the  child  with  whom  he  has  to  deal — an 
image,  moreover,  which,  like  a  composite  photo- 
graph, throws  into  relief  a  general  type  or  ideal, 
and  thus  becomes  a  standard  by  which  all  of  its 
individual  examples  may  be  measured.  The 
manifestations  of  a  particular  child  may  reveal 
an  essential  truth  of  human  nature,  but  they 
may  also  spring  from  individual  defect  or  per- 
version. To  be  truly  interpreted,  they  must  be 
compared  with  the  revelation  of  childhood  as  it 
is  writ  large  upon  the  pages  of  history.  Only 
very  shallow  thov^ght  ever  sets  up  as  a  standard 
the  individual  consciousness,  while  insight  into 
the  universal  is  the  kernel  of  all  true  philosophy 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  RACE.  53 

and  the  practical  application  of  this  insight  the 
kernel  of  all  wise  education. 

All  students  of  FroebeFs  writings  must  be 
struck  by  his  repeated  allusions  to  the  parallel 
between  the  development  of  the  individual  and 
that  of  the  race.  The  practical  outcome  of  this 
insight  is  to  be  found  in  that  symbolism  which, 
though  it  has  long  been  recognized  as  the  most 
original  and  most  fruitful  of  his  pedagogic  inno- 
vations, is,  even  to-day,  the  least  understood  fea- 
ture of  the  kindergarten  games  and  gifts.  Its 
significance  will  be  appreciated  only  as  the  sym- 
bolic acts  and  speech  of  the  child  are  interpreted 
by  the  naive  symbolism  which  is  the  distinctive 
characteristic  of  thought  during  the  long  child- 
hood of  mankind. 

While  we  may  hesitate  to  accept  Emerson's 
dictum  that  "all  thinking  is  analogizing,"'  no 
one  can  doubt  that  analogy  is  the  key  to  the 
mental  processes  of  primitive  man.  To  its  in- 
fluence must  be  ascribed  the  universal  belief  of 
savages  in  the  animation  of  all  natural  objects. 
Interpreting  the  world  around  them  through  the 
medium  of  their  own  sensations,  they  endow  all 
objects  with  life,  feeling,  and  volition.  In  their 
conception,  sun  and  moon,  clouds  and  winds,  sea 
and  mountains  are  animate  beings,  whose  lives 
may  be  interpreted  by  human  analogies.    The 


54  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

rainbow  is  a  monster  which  devours  man;  the 
waterspout,  a  cruel  giant ;  fire,  a  serpent  which 
will  sting  those  who  touch  it.  When  a  savage  is 
wounded  by  an  arrow  he  punishes  it  with  a  fero- 
cious bite ;  the  fetich  which  has  failed  to  bring 
him  rain  he  binds,  beats,  or  destroys  ;  and  upon 
the  tree  from  which  a  relative  has  fallen  he 
revenges  himself  by  cutting  it  to  the  ground  and 
scattering  its  chips.*  If,  reasoning  from  the 
phenomena  of  dreams,  he  concludes  that  each 
man  has  a  phantom  or  other  self,  he  believes,  for 
the  same  reason,  in  the  other  selves  of  beasts  and 
trees,  hatchets  and  arrows.  Therefore,  when  he 
dies,  weapons,  food,  ornaments,  and  money  are 
buried  with  him,  in  order  that  his  phantom  self 
may  lack  none  of  the  things  upon  which  the 
actual  self  had  depended  during  its  earthly  life. 

In  analogy  must  be  recognized  also  the  power 
which  has  presided  over  the  development  of  lan- 
guage. Through  analogy,  our  forefathers,  look- 
ing up  to  the  great  source  of  light  and  heat, 
named  it  the  Sun,  or  begetter.  Through  analogy, 
the  savage  describes  his  face  as  moon  and  his 
cake  as  sugar  cane.  Through  analogy,  names  for 
the  most  various  objects  have  been  derived  from 
common  roots — e.  g.,  "  from  roots  meaning  to  go 
were  formed  names  for  clouds,  ivy,  serpents,  cat- 

*  Primitive  Culture,  E.  B.  Tylor,  p.  286  et  seq. 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  RACE.  55 

tie,  and  chattel,  for  movable  and  immovable  prop- 
erty/' *  Through  analogy,  all  words  expressive 
of  spiritual  ideas  have  been  derived  from  roots 
which  originally  had  a  material  meaning.  Thus 
the  New  Guinea  savage  expresses  the  idea  of 
pity  through  a  word  whose  primary  meaning 
was  "  to  have  a  stomach-ache '' ;  \  and  our  own 
word  tribulation  comes  from  the  trihulum  or 
sledge  used  by  the  Romans  for  separating  the 
chaff  from  the  wheat.  Finally,  through  analogy, 
primitive  men  described  the  phenomena  of  Na- 
ture in  words  borrowed  from  ihQ  vocabulary 
of  human  actions  and  sentiments,  and  their 
common  speech  was  largely  made  up  of  poetic 
metaphor.  Thus,  the  sun  was  said  to  love  the 
dawn  because  he  hastens  after  her,  and  to  kill 
the  dawn  because  the  dawn  disappears  when  the 
sun  has  risen ;  clouds  were  conceived  as  maidens 
with  swans'  plumage,  and  the  moon  was  pictured 
as  the  sister  or  bride  of  the  sun,  or,  again,  as  a 
rival  cleft  in  twain  by  the  sun  because  of  his 
jealous  love  for  the  morning  star.  Without  met- 
aphor, as  Professor  Max  Mtiller  has  pointed  out, 
language  could  not  have  progressed  beyond  the 
simplest  rudiments,  neither  could  there  have 
been  any  advance  in  the  intellectual  life  of  man. 

*  Max  Miiller,  Science  of  Language,  vol.  ii.,  p.  450. 
t  Ibid.,  p.  438. 


56  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

In  the  ascription  of  life  and  will  to  all  natural 
objects,  and  in  the  metaphorical  speech  of  primi- 
tive peoples,  many  writers  claim  to  have  found  a 
sufficient  explanation  of  that  most  characteristic 
phenomenon  of  the  great  human  childhood,  the 
origin  and  development  of  myth.  By  far  the 
greater  number  of  myths,  moreover,  have  been 
traced  back  to  anthropomorphic  conceptions  of 
Day  and  Night,  the  Dawn  and  the  Gloaming, 
and  to  descriptions  of  their  doings, "  which  ap- 
plied so  well  to  the  deeds  of  human  or  quasi- 
human  beings  that  in  course  of  time  their  primi- 
tive purport  faded  from  recollection."  *  "  Let 
but  the  key  be  recovered  to  this  mythic  dialect," 
and  we  are  promised  that  "  all  its  complex  and 
shifting  terms  will  translate  themselves  into  real- 
ity, and  show  how  far  legend  in  its  sympathetic 
fictions  of  war,  love,  crime,  adventure,  fate,  is 
only  telling  the  perennial  story  of  the  world^s 
daily  life."  f  Even  assuming  this  explanation  to 
be  a  satisfactory  one,  the  development  of  myth 
offers  another  striking  illustration  of  the  ana- 
logical reasoning  of  primitive  men.  But  the 
more  deeply  we  penetrate  into  the  soul  of  myth 
the  stronger  becomes  our  conviction  that  neither 
animism  nor  verbal  metaphor  are  adequate  to 

*  Myths  and  Mythmakers,  John  Fiske,  p.  134. 
t  E.'  B.  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  p.  316. 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  RACE.  57 

account  for  its  origin,  but  that,  on  the  contrary, 
the  impetus  which  shaped  it  was  man's  longing 
for  self-knowledge,  and  that  its  roots  must  be 
sought  in  his  premonition  of  the  strange  and 
wonderful  correspondences  which  exist  between 
the  life  of  Nature  and  the  life  of  the  soul.    These 
opposing  theories  may  be  tested  by  a  considera- 
tion of  the  two  myths  which  have  been  most 
prolific,  and,  among  Aryan  peoples  at  least,  have 
become  most  widely  diffused — the  myth  of  the  all- 
conquering  hero  and  the  myth  of  the  wanderer 
who,  through  farthest  space  and  beset  by  deadly 
perils,  seeks  for  a  bride  whom  he  has  loved  and 
lost,  or  for  a  treasure  of  which  he  has  been  robbed. 
According  to  the  popular  view  of  mythology, 
the  prototype  of  the  countless  gods,  heroes,  and 
knights  who   overcame   monsters  of   all   kinds 
is  none  other  than  the  mighty  Sun,  who  slays 
the  demons  of  night,  storm,  winter,  and  eclipse. 
Back  to  sun-battles  must  be  traced  the  conflicts 
of   Apollo   and   the    Python,  CEdipus   and   the 
Sphinx,  Bellerophon  and  the  Chimsera,  Sigurd 
and  Fafnir,  St.  George  and  the  Dragon.     The 
rays  of  the  sun  are  the  unerring  darts  and  in- 
vincible weapons  with  which  legend  has  armed 
its  heroes,  the  originals  of  Gram,  Durandal,  and 
Excalibur,  of  the  spear  of  Achilles,  the  shafts 
of  Odysseus,  and  the  poisoned  arrows  given  by 


58  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

Hercules  to  Philoctetes,  and  without  which  Troy 
could  not  be  taken.  The  flaming  eyes  and 
streaming  golden  locks  of  mythic  heroes  are  but 
a  dim  reflection  of  the  noonday  splendor  of  their 
heavenly  ancestor,  and  when  they  come  to  die  it 
is  always  from  causes  which  point  directly  to  his 
descent  into  darkness,  or  his  defeat  by  his  great 
enemy,  the  winter  cold.  Thus  Hercules  is  con- 
sumed upon  a  blazing  funeral  pyre  (sunset), 
Sigurd  is  slain  by  a  thorn  (frost),  while  Arthur 
is  received  by  black-hooded  queens  into  a  barge 
"dark  as  a  funeral  scarf  from  stem  to  stern.'* 
In  like  manner  mythic  descriptions  of  the  love, 
estrangement,  and  reunion  of  the  Sun  and  Dawn 
are  said  to  be  the  creative  source  of  those  touch- 
ing legends  whose  theme  is  the  separation  of  he- 
roes from  the  brides  whom  they  wed  only  to  lose. 
The  stories  of  Odysseus  journeying  homeward 
under  grievous  perils,  and  of  Orpheus  seeking 
Eurydice  in  Hades,  are  transfigured  accounts  of 
the  search  of  the  Sun  for  the  Dawn,  while  the 
beautiful  allegory  of  Psyche  is  a  flower  whose 
mythic  seed  was  the  search  of  the  Dawn  for  the 
San.  Finally,  stories  like  that  of  the  theft  and 
recovery  of  the  Golden  Fleece  are  born  of  poetic 
descriptions  of  clouds  lit  up  by  solar  rays,  stolen 
by  storm  fiends  or  night  fiends,  and  recovered  by 
the  all-conquering  Sun. 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OP  THE  RACE.      59 

The  solar  substrate  of  the  myths  we  have 
been  considering  is  beyond  dispute,  for  their 
lineage  has  been  traced  back  to  primitive  stories 
wherein  the  names  of  the  heroes  and  heroines 
prove  them  children  of  the  Sun  or  the  Dawn, 
while  the  names  of  their  foes  betray  an  ancestry 
of  night,  cold,  and  storm.  But  what  of  the  sun 
myth  itself  ?  Was  it  nothing  more  than  a  poetic 
description  of  the  exploits,  the  loves,  and  the  suf- 
ferings of  the  great  god  of  day  ?  Was  there  no 
response  in  man  to  the  conflict  between  light 
and  darkness  ?  Was  there  no  hero  asleep  in  the 
human  soul  who  started  into  waking  life  when 
confronted  by  his  own  symbolic  image  ? — no 
wanderer  whose  impulse  to  seek  an  ideal  good 
was  stirred  by  the  search  of  the  Sun  for  the 
Dawn,  and  the  Dawn  for  the  Sun  ?  In  a  word, 
was  not  the  sun  myth  the  symbolic  expression  of 
man's  own  nature  and  the  prophecy  of  his  his- 
toric career  ? 

The  current  explanation  of  the  solar  myth 
fails  to  account  for  its  vitality  and  persistence 
after  the  sun  has  been  transfigured  into  a  human 
hero,  whose  heavenly  ancestry  has  faded  from 
the  minds  of  men.  Why  do  these  tales  of  con- 
quering heroes  continue  to  be  told  among  all 
peoples  ?  Why  do  men  never  tire  of  the  story 
of  alienation  and  return  ?     Why  do  literature 


60  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

and  art  circle  forever  around  these  primitive 
themes  ?  Why  do  children,  the  world  over,  de- 
light in  the  household  tales  which  repeat  under 
countless  variations  the  legends  of  the  hero  and 
the  wanderer  ?  These  are  questions  which  must 
occur  to  any  thoughtful  mind.  Their  answer  is 
to  be  found  in  the  nature  of  man  as  revealed  in 
history.  To  history,  therefore,  let  us  turn,  dis- 
covering therein,  if  we  may,  the  originals  of  the 
hero  and  the  dragon,  and  the  image  of  that  tire- 
less wanderer  who  always  compels  our  deepest 
sympathy. 

In  a  cave  in  France,  supposed  by  geologists  to 
be  a  hundred  thousand  years  old,  may  be  seen  the 
oldest  extant  picture  of  a  man.  It  represents  a 
very  small  man,  naked  and  defenseless,  fleeing  in 
terror  from  an  enormous  serpent.  It  is  the  true 
image  of  primitive  man  in  his  relationship  to  Na- 
ture, and  touches  the  heart  with  its  vivid  expres- 
sion of  feebleness  and  fear.  Chased  by  wild 
beasts,  pelted  by  storms,  fevered  by  tropic  suns, 
benumbed  by  polar  frosts,  famished  with  hunger, 
hemmed  in  by  mountains,  isolated  by  seas,  shut 
up  for  companionship  to  his  own  tribe,  and 
bounded  in  his  experience  by  the  pitiful  term  of 
his  individual  life,  savage  man  is  the  slave  of  Na- 
ture, which  crushes  him  with  its  resistless  might. 

But  in  this  slave  of  Nature  beats  the  heart  of 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  RACE.  61 

a  hero,  and  he  soon  turns  upon  his  oppressor.  He 
invents  the  bow  and  arrow,  and  becomes  a  terror 
to  the  wild  beasts  who  had  terrified  him.  He 
erects  rude  huts  to  protect  himself  from  cold  and 
storm.  He  domesticates  the  dog,  sheep,  horse, 
and  cow,  and  through  cultivation  transforms 
mere  edible  grasses  into  wheat,  barley,  and  rye. 
He  drains  the  marsh,  levels  the  mountain,  fer- 
tilizes the  desert,  and  makes  the  ocean  his  high- 
way. He  spiritualizes  the  material  of  Nature  in 
the  forms  of  art,  and  in  the  light  of  science  sees 
the  world  not  in  the  isolation  of  objects  but  in 
the  continuity  of  process.  With  the  help  of  steam 
and  electricity  he  conquers  space,  while  with  the 
printed  page  he  annihilates  time,  and  thus,  roam- 
ing at  will  over  the  broad  earth  and  through  the 
centuries,  he  bursts  the  limits  of  individuality, 
family,  tribe,  race,  and  generation,  and  expands 
to  the  measure  of  the  universal  life. 

Parallel  with  man's  conquest  of  Nature  is  his 
conquest  of  political  and  social  freedom.  Hegel 
has  epitomized  the  teaching  of  history  in  the 
pregnant  sentence : ''  The  Orient  knew,  and  to  the 
present  day  knows,  only  that  one  is  free ;  the  Greek 
and  Roman  world  knew  that  some  are  free ;  the 
German  world  knows  that  all  are  free."*     The 

*  Hegel's  Philosophy  of  History  (Bohn's  Philosophical  Li- 
brary), p.  110,  "  German  World ''= Modem  World. 


62  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

first  book  of  history  records  the  struggle  between 
the  despotism  of  Persia  and  the  newborn  spirit 
of  freedom  in  Greece.  Subsequent  ages  have  but 
repeated  the  struggle  in  fresh  and  deeper  forms, 
with  the  victory  always  on  the  side  of  freedom. 
The  triumph  of  the  Athenians  at  Marathon,  and 
their  defeat  at  Syracuse ;  the  victory  of  German 
Hermann  over  the  Roman  legions  under  Varus ; 
the  crushing  of  Attila  at  Chalons ;  the  repulse  of 
the  Saracens  at  Tours ;  the  victories  of  Liitzen, 
Lepanto,  Blenheim,  Saratoga,  Waterloo,  what  are 
these  but  crises  in  the  one  great  battle  of  free- 
dom ? — a  battle  whose  roar  we  may  still  hear 
around  us,  and  which  must  go  on  until  the  poet^s 
dream  is  realized  and 

"  battle-flags  are  furled 
In  the  Parliament  of  man,  the  federation  of  the  world." 

The  conquest  of  Nature  and  the  overthrow  of 
political  despotisms  are  but  the  lesser  victories 
of  heroic  humanity.  The  wild  beast  that  rages 
within  man  is  more  terrible  than  all  those  that 
rove  the  earth;  the  chains  of  ignorance,  the 
shackles  of  sin,  are  stronger  than  those  of  out- 
ward despots ;  and  fiercer  is  the  battle  in  the  soul 
than  any  ever  fought  on  land  or  sea.  The  true 
hero  is  he  who,  within  himself  as  battle-ground, 
meets  and  slays  himself  as  foe ;  and  history  re- 
ceives its  profoundest  significance  from  the  fact 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  RACE.  63 

that  it  reveals  the  ever-deepeniug  ideals  by  which 
this  spiritual  conflict  has  been  incited  and  main- 
tained. The  savage  knows  no  law  but  his  own 
caprice,  and  believes  the  universe  to  be  capricious. 
Hence  his  religion  is  f etichism,  and  the  unformu- 
lated rule  of  his  life  to  do  as  he  may  please.  Fol- 
lowing f  etichism  come  the  great  pantheistic  re- 
ligions, which  define  the  infinite  as  negation  of 
the  finite,  and  discipline  the  uncontrolled  natural 
will  with  the  law  of  self-renunciation.  Persia 
advances  to  the  positive  thought  of  a  conflict  be- 
tween the  powers  of  light  and  darkness,  and  chal- 
lenges each  man  to  the  help  of  Ormuzd  against 
Ahriman.  Judaism  declares  a  just  God,  who 
loves  righteousness  and  hates  iniquity,  and  in 
the  ten  commandments  defines  for  all  ages  the 
binding  moral  law.  Christianity  attains  the  final 
insight  that  justice  can  not  itself  be  just  unless 
it  capacitates  for  the  perfection  it  requires,  re- 
veals a  God  of  grace,  and  declares  the  fulfillment 
of  all  separate  commandments  in  the  perfect  law 
of  love.  Thus  through  the  struggle  of  the  ages 
is  the  arbitrary  caprice  of  the  savage  transfigured 
into  the  rational  liberty  of  the  man  whom  the 
truth  makes  free. 

And  now,  since  the  burden  of  history  is  man^s 
conquest  over  foes  without  and  foes  within,  can 
we  doubt  that  the  hero  in  the  soul  is  the  proto- 


64  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

type  of  all  the  heroes  of  myth  and  poetry,  and 
that  it  was  his  own  ideal  image  which  man  hailed 
with  such  fervor  in  the  "Orient  conqueror  of 
gloomy  night  ^^  ?  This  insight  explains  the  per- 
sistence and  development  of  myth  after  its  phys- 
ical substrate  has  been  forgotten.  Springing  from 
the  depths  of  the  spirit,  it  grew  with  the  growth 
of  the  soul  and  unfolded  with  her  unfolding.  It 
was,  therefore,  no  "disease  of  language,'^  but  a 
necessary  phase  of  a  spiritual  process,  that  phys- 
ical light  and  darkness  should  fade  into  the  back- 
ground just  in  proportion  as  the  morning  flush 
of  consciousness  J^rightened  toward  its  perfect 
day. 

Myth  has  been  well  defined  "as  an  uncon- 
scious act  of  the  popular  mind  at  an  early  stage 
of  society.^^  It  is  the  product  not  of  an  individual 
but  of  a  people,  and  it  springs  from  a  source  above 
the  will  and  beyond  the  consciousness  of  its  crea- 
tors. It  is,  in  a  word,  the  dreaming  of  the  generic 
spirit,  and  therefore  prophetic  of  the  career  of 
humanity,  while,  conversely,  it  can  be  truly  in- 
terpreted only  in  the  light  of  its  historic  fulfill- 
ment. Man  has  defined  himself  in  language  as 
"  him  who  thinks  ^^  and  "  him  who  dies  " ;  in  my- 
thology and  heroic  legend  he  has  defined  himself 
as  "  him  who  overcomes." 

And  not  only  does  man  express  in  myth  the 


THE  CHILDHOOD   OF  THE  RACE.  65 

ideal  which  is  striving  to  attain  the  light  of 
consciousness,  but  the  myth,  once  created,  reacts 
upon  thought  and  will,  and  thus  tends  to  pro- 
duce the  hero  it  portrays.  Who  shall  say  how 
far  the  legends  of  Hercules  and  Achilles  con- 
tributed to  produce  heroic  Greece  ?  Who  can 
measure  the  influence  of  the  mythic  Thor  upon 
the  hardy  Norseman  ?  Who  shall  determine 
how  much  of  practical  invention  and  spiritual 
achievement  is  still  prompted  by  Boots,  Diimm- 
ling,  and  Jack  the  Giant-Killer,  the  nursery  he- 
roes of  the  Norseman,  the  Teuton,  and  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  ? 

As  the  myth  of  the  hero  foreshadows  the  con- 
quests of  the  will,  so  the  touching  legends  of  sep- 
aration and  reunion  adumbrate  the  history  of 
the  soul  in  its  spiral  ascent  to  ever  higher  grades 
of  consciousness.  The  old  story-tellers  have  im- 
agined countless  variations  of  this  favor  its  theme, 
introducing  into  their  tales  many  complex  mo- 
tives and  many  strange  incidents.  Of  tenest,  how- 
ever, the  maiden  is  either  forsaken  by  her  lover, 
as  in  the  legends  of  Ariadne,  CEnone,  lole,  or  as 
in  the  old  Hindu  myth  of  Urvasi,  and  the  Greek 
tale  of  Psyche,  the  separation  is  brought  about 
by  failure  to  comply  with  the  conditions  upon 
which  depend  the  permanence  of  the  union. 
Psyche,  a  king^s  daughter,  is  wedded  to  Eros, 


66  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

god  of  love.  She  may,  however,  not  look  upon 
him,  but  must  find  her  happiness  in  union  with 
the  invisible  divinity.  Enticed  by  curiosity,  she 
gets  a  lamp  and  gazes  upon  the  sleeping  god, 
who  instantly  vanishes.  The  remainder  of  the 
story  relates  the  weary  search  of  Psyche  for  her 
lost  love,  the  cruel  tasks  imposed  upon  her,  her 
misery  in  estrangement,  her  reconciliation  with 
Eros,  her  heavenly  marriage,  and  the  gift  of  im- 
mortality which  is  conferred  upon  her. 

These  stories  of  separation  and  reunion  state 
in  mythic  form  the  most  universal  fact  of  human 
experience.  For  what  is  life  but  a  process  where- 
in the  child's  happy  sense  of  oneness  with  Nature, 
man,  and  God,  vanishes  in  the  questions  and 
antagonisms  of  youth,  to  be  found  again  when 
reason  reafiirms  the  truths  handed  down  by  tra- 
dition, and  when  duties,  which  had  seemed  mere 
arbitrary  impositions,  are  recognized  as  express- 
ing the  inmost  being  and  need  of  the  soul  ?  And 
again,  what  is  this  individual  experience  but  a 
repetition  in  brief  of  the  historic  development  of 
consciousness — a' movement  always  conceived  as 
pointing  backward  to  a  lost  Eden  or  a  vanished 
age  of  gold,  while  in  reality  pressing  forward 
toward  the  true  paradise  which  waits  for  man  at 
the  goal  of  aspiration  and  achievement  ? 

While  the  whole  of  life  may  be  thus  conceived 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  RACE.  67 

as  a  circular  process,  the  same  movement  is  mani- 
fested in  countless  smaller  circles  recurring  upon 
each,  higher  plane  of  experience.  Thus  the  infant 
plays  at  estrangement  and  reunion  in  his  favor- 
ite game  of  hide  and  seek.  "  Why  is  it,  dear 
mother,"  asks  Froebel,  "  that  your  baby  loves  to 
hide  his  face  behind  your  handkerchief  ?  He 
might  lie  unhidden  in  your  arms,  on  your  knee, 
close  to  your  heart,  and  lying  thus  see  ever  your 
eyes  looking  back  into  his  own.  Does  he  wish 
to  conceal  himself  from  you,  to  be  separated  from 
you  ?  God  forbid !  He  hides  himself  for  the 
happiness  of  being  found,  and  seeks  through 
momentary  separation  to  quicken  his  feeling  of 
union  with  you."  In  like  manner  young  chil- 
dren love,  themselves,  to  seek  for  hidden  objects, 
and  their  delight  when  search  has  been  rewarded 
by  discovery  justifies  Lord  Bacon's  saying  that 
'^according  to  the  innocent  play  of  children  the 
divine  Majesty  took  delight  to  hide  his  works,  to 
the  end  to  have  them  found  out."  As  childhood 
passes  into  boyhood,  the  longing  for  estrange- 
ment manifests  itself  in  new  and  deeper  forms. 
Familiar  surroundings  lose  their  charm,  and  the 
desire  for  wandering  and  adventure  is  born.  A 
longing  for  the  "  far  off,  the  strange  and  the  won- 
derful," seizes  upon  the  mind,  and  the  boy  plays 
at  being  a  bandit  or  pirate,  an  explorer  of  un- 


68  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

known  lands  or  a  hunter  in  far-away  forests.  In 
spiritual  correspondence  with  these  more  exter- 
nal manifestations  he  asserts  his  own  will  against 
that  of  parents  and  teachers,  and  begins  to  ques- 
tion the  wisdom  of  his  elders.  Finally,  the  youth 
attacks  the  whole  existing  order  of  things,  and 
thought,  intoxicated  by  a  premonition  of  its  own 
absoluteness,  insists  upon  making  itself  the  meas- 
ure of  the  world.  "What  signify  to  the  ardent 
youth  our  social  conventions,  political  dogmas, 
and  religious  creeds  ?  Is  he  not  also  free  ?  Does 
he  not  feel  within  him  a  higher  law  ?  Has  he 
not  in  his  own  reason  a  criterion  of  truth  ?  Away 
with  the  superstitions  of  the  past,  and  let  rea- 
son create  purer  manners,  a  freer  government,  a 
higher  creed  !  Thus  dreams  the  young  iconoclast, 
and  knows  not  that  he  is  himself  the  supreme 
idolater. 

To  all  the  circles  of  individual  experience  his- 
tory offers  recurrent  correspondences.  Hints  of 
the  deeper  meaning  of  the  youthful  longing  for 
travel  and  adventure  are  given  in  the  restless 
migrations  of  primitive  tribes,  in  that  ^^  urging  of 
the  spirit  outward  "  manifested  in  the  maritime 
heroes  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  and  resulting  in 
the  discovery  of  a  new  world — in  the  heroic  im- 
pulses which  have  driven  Englishmen  across  the 
seas  and  created  new  Englands  in  America  and 


THE  CHILDHOOD   OF  THE  RACE.  69 

Australia.  These  external  migrations  and  coloni- 
zations, again,  are  but  types  and  symbols  of  the 
dauntless  sallies  of  the  soul  into  its  own  undis- 
covered realms ;  of  new  continents  of  the  mind 
dawning  upon  the  gaze  of  the  tireless  explorer ; 
of  spiritual  settlement  in  these  fair  lands  of  de- 
sire; of  wars  between  ancestral  creeds  and  the 
deeper  impulses  stirred  by  fresh  influxes  of  the 
spirit;  of  joy  and  peace,  when  in  the  strange 
beauty  of  the  new  revelation  is  recognized  the 
glorified  image  of  loved  and  familiar  truth.  The 
age  of  Socrates  in  Greece,  the  age  which  wit- 
nessed the  introduction  of  Christianity  into  all 
parts  of  the  Roman  Empire,  the  age  of  the  Ref- 
ormation— are  historic  examples  of  the  descent 
of  Reason  into  its  own  depths,  and  its  ascent 
therefrom  into  a  higher  consciousness.  But  the 
world-historic  period  of  estrangement  was  the 
age  of  the  French  Revolution,  when  thought  at- 
tacked not  this  or  that  political  or  religious  dog- 
ma, but  armed  itself  against  the  whole  content  of 
consciousness;  and  when  man,  in  the  very  mo- 
ment of  enthroning  Reason  as  mistress  of  the 
world,  threw  away  the  rich  heritage  she  had 
painfully  accumulated  through  the  toil  of  centu- 
ries. By  this  terrible  object  lesson  the  modern 
world  has  been  taught  that  man  is  not  made,  but 
in  process  of  making — that,  indeed,  human  nature 


70  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

exists  only  as  it  is  created  by  self -activity,  and 
by  the  participation  of  each  man  in  the  expe- 
rience of  all  men,  and  therefore  that  no  political 
folly  can  be  greater  than  the  atomism  which  de- 
taches the  individual  from  the  social  whole,  and 
breaks  the  continuity  of  history  by  severing  the 
links  which  bind  the  present  to  the  past. 

These  rhythmic  undulations,  occurring  alike 
in  the  little  stream  of  individual  life  and  the 
mighty  river  of  history,  are  explained  by  insight 
into  the  nature  of  mind  as  self -activity.  The 
thought  of  self -activity  is  the  thought  of  a  self- 
producing  energy,  and  mind  exists  actually  only 
in  so  far  as  it  makes  itself  to  be.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  always  possesses  ideally  the  possibilities 
which  it  makes  actual  in  the  course  of  its  de- 
velopment, and  its  history  is  the  conversion  of 
abstract  universality  into  concrete  universality 
by  descent  into  and  ascent  out  of  externality 
and  manifoldness.  All  thought  presupposes  that 
things  are  thinkable,  and  latent  in  this  presuppo- 
sition is  the  idea  of  a  common  reason  in  the  think- 
ing subject  and  the  object  of  thought.  Hence 
thought  is  both  objective  and  subjective,  or,  dif- 
ferently stated,  thought  and  thinking,  object  and 
subject,  are  one  and  the  same.  The  movement 
of  mind  is  therefore  circular,  and  its  going  out 
from  itself  is  at  the  same  time  a  coming  to  itself. 


THE  CHILDnOOD  OP  THE  RACE.  71 

It  may  help  us  to  follow  out  tliis  rather  ob- 
scure line  of  thought  to  consider  for  a  moment 
what  is  involved  in  the  idea  of  self -consciousness. 
Self -consciousness  is  the  knowing  of  the  self  by 
the  self,  and  this  implies  both  the  distinction  of 
subject  and  object  and  the  recognition  of  their 
identity.  He  who  says  ^^  I/^  separates  himself  as 
subject  thinking  from  himself  as  object  thought, 
and  yet  declares  that  subject  and  object  are  one 
and  the  same.  Seen  partially,  this  spiritual  pro- 
cess appears  to  be  one  of  alienation  or  estrange- 
ment, but  when  followed  throughout  its  entire 
sweep  it  is  recognized  as  a  circular  or  rhythmic 
movement,  beginning  from  and  returning  to  it- 
self. 

The  circular  form  of  spiritual  activity  is  im- 
plicitly recognized  by  all  world-poets  and  ex- 
plicitly declared  by  the  greatest  philosophers. 
Plato  speaks  of  the  soul  "turning  in  herself/' 
and  describes  mind  as  the  "sphere  of  the  self- 
moved  in  voiceless  silence  turning/'  Hegel  char- 
acterizes the  activity  of  reason  as  a  process  of 
"  return  upon  itself.''  Dante  pictures  ascending 
degrees  of  spiritual  life  by  the  increasing  ve- 
locity of  concentric  circles  of  flame.  Shake- 
speare portrays  the  deed  as  a  self -evolving  circle 
which  returns  upon  the  doer.  Goethe  shows  us 
in  the  career  of  Mephistopheles  the  circular  pro- 


72  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

cess  throngli  which  the  power  that  always  wills 
the  bad  is  made  to  work  the  good.  Emerson 
calls  the  circle  the  highest  emblem  in  the  cipher 
of  the  world,  and  in  several  of  his  mystic  poems 
suggests  what  he  elsewhere  distinctly  states,  that 
^^the  circles  of  intellect  relate  to  those  of  the 
heavens  " : 

"  Nature  centers  into  balls 
And  her  proud  ephemerals, 
Fast  to  surface  and  outside, 

Scan  the  profile  of  the  sphere; 
Knew  they  what  that  signified, 
A  new  Genesis  were  here." 

With  this  insight  into  the  nature  of  reason 
we  are  able  to  explain  fully  the  origin  of  sun 
myths.  I  have  tried  to  show  that  the  many 
legends  of  heroes  and  wanderers  adumbrate  the 
historic  career  of  humanity,  and  have  their  source 
in  the  soul's  prophetic  anticipation  of  its  own 
nature  and  destiny.  But  long  before  men  were 
able  to  create  such  tales  as  these  their  wonder 
was  excited  by  those  alternations  of  light  and 
darkness  which  correspond  to  the  pulsations  of 
consciousness.  Hence,  sun  myths,  when  studied 
historically,  show  clear  traces  of  spiritual  ascent. 
In  their  primitive  stage  of  development,  as  Mr. 
Fiske  has  pointed  out,  "  they  are  little  more  than 
direct  copies  of  natural  phenomena,  just  as  imita- 
tive words  are  direct  copies  of  natural  sounds.^^ 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  RACE.  73 

Thus  savage  mythology  has  much  to  tell  of  sun- 
devouring  jaguars,  dogs,  fishes,  and  serpents,  and 
European  folk-lore  preserves  reminiscences  of 
such  archaic  myths  in  the  stories  of  Little  Red 
Riding-hood,  of  Tom  Thumb  who  emerges  un- 
harmed from  the  stomach  of  a  cow,  and  of  the 
seven  little  kids  so  ingeniously  released  from  the 
body  of  a  sleeping  wolf.  Tales  such  as  these, 
while  they  point  clearly  to  the  sun  who  is  swal- 
lowed and  again  disgorged  by  night,  storm,  and 
eclipse,  show  little  of  the  transforming  power 
of  imagination.  But  in  the  myths  of  hero  and 
wanderer,  as  well  as  in  legends  like  that  of  Sisy- 
phus with  his  recoiling  stone,  and  Ixion  bound 
for  his  sin  upon  a  revolving  wheel  of  flame,  it  is 
clear  that  brute  fact  has  been  freighted  with 
spirit,  and  that  Reason  has  learned  to  recognize 
her  own  image  in  the  symbols  of  Nature.* 

*  Those  of  my  readers  who  are  familiar  with  the  writings  of 
Dr.  Harris  will  recognize  that  I  have  repeated  very  imperfectly 
his  explanation  of  the  origin  of  sun  myths.  For  the  benefit  of 
those  who  may  not  have  seen  this  explanation  I  herewith  give 
it  in  full,  hoping  it  may  prove  as  great  a  revelation  to  them  as 
it  has  been  to  me  : 

"  Consciousness  is  the  knowing  of  the  self  by  the  self.  There 
is  subject  and  object  and  the  activity  of  recognition.  From 
subject  to  object  there  is  distinction  and*  difference,  but  with 
recognition  sameness  or  identity  is  perceived,  and  the  distinc- 
tion or  difference  is  retracted.  What  is  this  simple  rhythm  but 
regularity  ?  It  is,  we  answer,  regularity,  but  it  is  much  more 
than  this.     But  the  child  or  savage  delights  in  monotonous 


74  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

I  have  dwelt  at  such  length  upon  sun  myths 
and  their  spiritual  interpretation  because  the 
study  of  these  myths  has  made  me  realize,  as  I 
never  did  before,  that  through  the  exercise  of 

repetition,  not  possessing  the  slightest  insight  into  the  cause  of 
his  delight.  His  delight  is,  however,  explicable  through  this 
fact  of  the  identity  in  form  between  the  rhythm  of  his  soul- 
activity  and  the  sense-perception  by  which  he  perceives  regu- 
larity. 

"  The  sun  myth  arises  through  the  same  feeling.  Wherever 
there  is  repetition,  especially  in  the  form  of  return  to  itself, 
there  comes  this  conscious  or  unconscious  satisfaction  at  behold- 
ing it.  Hence,  especially  circular  movement,  or  movement  in 
cycles,  is  the  most  wonderful  of  all  the  phenomena  beheld  by 
primitive  man.  Nature  presents  to  his  observation  infinite  dif- 
ferences. Out  of  the  confused  mass  he  traces  some  forms  of 
recurrence — day  and  night,  the  phases  of  the  moon,  the  seasons 
of  the  year,  genus  and  species  in  animals  and  plants,  the  ap- 
parent revolutions  of  the  fixed  stars,  and  the  orbits  of  planets. 
These  phenomena  furnish  him  symbols  or  types  in  which  to 
express  his  ideas  concerning  the  divine  principle  that  he  feels 
to  be  First  Cause.  To  the  materialistic  student  of  sociology  all 
religions  are  merely  transfigured  sun  myths.  But  to  the  deeper 
student  of  psychology  it  becomes  clear  that  the  sun  myth  itself 
rests  on  the  perception  of  identity  between  regular  cycles  and 
the  rhythm  which  characterizes  the  activity  of  self-conscious- 
ness. And  self-consciousness  is  felt  and  seen  to  be  a  form  of 
being  not  on  a  par  with  mere  transient  individual  existence, 
but  the  essential  attribute  of  the  Divine  Being,  Author  of  all." 
— Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Philosophy,  pp.  190,  191, 

In  connection  with  Dr.  Harris's  explanation  of  the  sun  myth, 
it  is  interesting  to  recall  Eckermann's  account  of  Goethe's  feel- 
ing for  the  sun : 

"  Sunday,  December  21, 1823.  Goethe's  good  humor  was  again 
brilliant  to-day.  We  have  reached  the  shortest  day ;  and  the 
hope  that  with  each  succeeding  w^eek  we  shall  see  a  consider- 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  RACE.  75 

phantasy  the  soul  begins  its  emancipation  from 
the  thralldom  of  sense.  Just  as  ^'  truth  embodied 
in  a  tale  shall  enter  in  at  lowly  doors/^  so  from 
the  opening  doors  of  the  soul  issued  that  long 
train  of  myths,  legends,  fables,  and  parables 
which  prepared  the  way  for  the  poetry  of  Homer 
and  the  philosophy  of  Plato.  If,  however,  other 
proof  is  needed  of  the  fact  that  through  symbolic 
expression  the  mind  rises  above  symbols,  it  may 
be  found  abundantly  in  the  history  of  art.  What 
are  the  earliest  musical  instruments  ?  Gongs, 
triangles,  cymbals,  jawbones,  rattles,  and  other 
percussive  instruments,  whose  sole  purpose  is  to 
accentuate  rhythmic  intervals  of  time.  What 
are  man's  first  ornaments  ?  Strings  of  beads 
around  the  neck,  rows  of  fringes  on  the  garments, 
and  regular  figures  tattooed  upon  the  face  and 
body.  What  are  the  first  products  of  architec- 
ture ?  Vast  monotonous  monuments,  which  sug- 
gest nothing  but  the  ceaseless  piling  of  stone 

able  increase  in  the  days,  appears  to  have  exerted  a  favorable 
effect  on  his  spirits.  '  To-day  we  celebrate  the  regeneration  of 
the  sun  I*  exclaimed  he,  joyfully  as  I  entered  his  room  this 
morning.  I  hear  that  it  is  his  custom  every  year  to  pass  the 
weeks  before  the  shortest  day  in  a  most  melancholy  frame  of 
mind — to  sigh  them  away,  in  fact." — Goethe  s  Conversations  with 
Eckermann,  Bohn^s  Standard  Library,  p.  4^. 

What  the  regeneration  of  the  sun  meant  to  Goethe  may  be 
learned  from  the  Easterday  in  Faust.     (See  Bayard  Taylor's 
translation,  pp.  27-35.) 
7 


76  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

upon  stone.  How  does  poetry  make  its  first  ap- 
pearance among  men  ?  In  the  form  of  mere 
metrical  chants  and  refrains.  How  do  savages 
and  barbarians  express  love,  hate,  joy,  and  sor- 
row ?  By  rnde  dances  or  regularly  repeated 
leaps  and  yells.  What  do  these  several  phenom- 
ena indicate  ?  Surely  the  naive  effort  of  Rea- 
son to  express  its  own  form  of  return,  and  thus 
interpret  itself  to  itself. 

With  advancing  consciousness  art  rises  into 
a  higher  symbolism  and  produces  monuments 
which  still  excite  the  wonder  of  the  world.  This 
higher  symbolism  finds  its  most  complete  expres- 
sion in  Egypt,  where,  under  the  concrete  form  of 
life,  death,  and  resurrection,  the  idea  of  aliena- 
tion and  return  becomes  the  basis  of  religion. 
This  idea  builds  the  pyramids,  gives  birth  to  the 
phoenix  eternally  consuming  itself  yet  forever 
rising  again  out  of  its  ashes,  carves  the  statue  of 
Memnon,  and  creates  the  Sphinx.  In  the  Sphinx, 
symbolic  art,  properly  so  called,  reaches  its  high- 
est expression.  "The  human  head  looking  out 
from  the  brute  body,"  says  Hegel,  "exhibits  spirit 
as  it  begins  to  emerge  from  the  merely  natural, 
to  tear  itself  loose  therefrom  and  already  to  look 
more  freely  around  it."  The  soul  has  begun  to 
question  itself  with  regard  to  its  own  origin,  na- 
ture, and  destiny.    These  questions,  once  pro- 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  RACE.      77 

pounded,  the  business  of  all  subsequent  ages  is 
to  find  their  answer.  Hence,  in  the  Classical 
Walpurgis  Night,  Goethe  makes  the  Sphinxes 
say  of  themselves : 

"  We  sit  beside  the  Pyramids 

For  the  judgment  of  the  races, 
Inundation,  war,  and  peace. 
With  eternal  changless  faces," 

We  have  glanced  at  the  naive  symbolism 
through  which  primitive  man  projected  his  own 
life  and  feeling  into  inanimate  objects;  at  the 
symbolism  of  language,  the  symbolism  of  myth, 
and  the  symbolism  of  art.  In  the  next  chapter 
we  shall  consider  the  animism  of  little  children, 
their  love  of  analogy,  their  symbolic  play,  their 
response  to  the  symbolism  of  Nature,  and  their 
delight  in  those  household  tales  wherein  are  en- 
shrined the  mythic  conceptions  of  childlike  men. 
If  it  shall  finally  appear  that  alike  in  the  indi- 
vidual and  the  race  childhood  is  wrapped  about 
with  the  atmosphere  of  poetic  symbolism,  we 
shall,  I  hope,  be  prepared  to  recognize  the  sig- 
nificance of  Froebel's  "  most  original  innovation 
in  education,"  and  to  study  with  open  minds  the 
symbolism  of  the  kindergarten  games  and  gifts. 


IV. 

THE  SYMBOLISM   OF  CHILDHOOD. 


"  My  heart  leaps  up  when  I  behold 
A  rainbow  in  the  sky  ; 
So  was  it  when  my  life  began ; 
So  is  it  now  I  am  a  man ; 
So  be  it  when  1  shall  grow  old, 

Or  let  me  die ! 
The  child  is  father  of  the  man ; 
And  I  could  wish  my  days  to  be 
Bound  each  to  each  by  natural  piety." 

— Wordsworth. 

"  Oh  !  give  us  once  again  the  wishing  cap 
Of  Fortunatus,  and  the  invisible  coat 
Of  Jack  the  Giant-Killer,  Robin  Hood,  , 

And  Sabra  in  the  forest  with  St.  George !  \ 

The  child  whose  love  is  here,  at  least,  doth  reap  \ 

One  precious  gain,  that  he  forgets  himself." 

— The  Prelude.  Wordsworth. 


n^^ 


^^ 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   SYMBOLISM  OF  CHILDHOOD. 

Whoever  has  observed  the  manner  in  which 
little  children  use  words  will  be  ready  to  admit 
that  the  young  human  being  begins  to  analo- 
gize almost  as  soon  as  he  begins  to  be.  Prof. 
Preyer  records  of  his  boy  that  before  he  was  able 
to  articulate  any  words  other  than  the  primitive 
syllables  mamma,  papa,  atta,  etc.,  he  had  formed 
the  habit  of  saying  aita  when  carried  from  the 
house  for  his  daily  outing.  In  his  eleventh 
month,  when  the  bright  light  of  a  lamp  was  soft- 
ened by  putting  a  shade  over  it,  he  broke  into  the 
same  exclamation,  thus  showing  that  he  had  dis- 
covered similarity  in  the  very  different  phenom- 
ena of  leaving  the  house  and  dimming  a  light. 
Later,  the  same  word  atta  was  used  to  denote  the 
closing  of  a  fan  and  the  emptying  of  a  glass,  and 
was  repeatedly  uttered  with  an  expression  of  ter- 
ror during  a  railway  journey,  when  the  child's 
fears  were  probably  excited  by  the  rapidity  with 
which  objects  vanished  from  view.    By  the  twen- 


82  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

tieth  montli  atta  had  acquired  the  general  sense 
of  going  or  gone,  while  in  contrast  with  this  con- 
cept the  ideas  of  coming,  shooting  forth,  emerg- 
ing, were  expressed  by  the  monosyllable  da  or 
ta.  Thus,  if  the  father  covered  his  head  and  let 
the  child  uncover  it,  the  little  one  would  laugh 
loudly  and  say  "Da";  while  if  his  father  left  the 
room  he  would  utter  softly  the  word  atta,  modi- 
fying it  into  hata  if  he  wished  to  be  taken  out 
himself. 

Here  are  other  examples  of  infant  analogizing : 
"  A  child  saw  and  heard  a  duck  on  the  water,  and 
said  quack.  Thereafter  he  called,  on  the  one 
hand,  all  birds  and  insects,  on  the  other  hand,  all 
liquids  quack.  Finally  he  called  all  coins  quack, 
after  having  seen  an  eagle  on  a  French  sou.  .  .  . 
Another  child,  a  boy  twenty-one  months  old, 
applied  the  joyous  outcry  ei,  modifying  it  into 
eiZy  into  aze,  and  then  into  ass,  to  his  wooden 
goat  on  wheels  and  covered  with  a  rough  hide; 
eiz,  then  became  exclusively  a  cry  of  joy;  ass,  the 
name  for  everything  that  moved  along — e.  g.,  for 
animals,  for  his  own  sister,  for  a  wagon ;  then  for 
everything  that  moved  at  all ;  finally,  for  every- 
thing that  had  a  rough  surface.'^  *  Illustrations 
of  this  kind  might  be  indefinitely  multiplied.  Say 
to  the  child  one  day  that  you  wish  to  unbutton 

*  The  Development  of  the  Intellect,  W.  Preyer,  p.  92, 


THE  SYMBOLISM  OF  CHILDHOOD.  83 

his  coat,  and  on  the  next  he  asks  you  to  unbutton 
a  nut.  Speak  before  him  of  the  roof  of  the  house, 
and  soon  after  he  surprises  you  by  saying  that 
his  teeth-roof  aches,  when  he  has  a  pain  in  his 
palate.*  Teach  him  that  the  blue  arch  overhead 
is  called  the  sky,  and  he  calls  the  ceiling  and  the 
top  of  the  piano,  sky  also.  Let  him  learn  the  word 
door,  and  soon  you  find  him  extending  it  to  boxes 
and  books,  coffee-pots  and  umbrellas.  After  some 
wonder,  and  perhaps  a  little  misgiving,  you  dis- 
cover that  the  tie  which  binds  together  these  va- 
rious objects  in  his  mind  is  the  simple  fact  that 
they  all  open  and  shut.  The  lesson  of  these  facts 
is  that  the  infant  mind  is  transparent  to  resem- 
blance but  opaque  to  difference.  The  child  seizes 
each  object  of  perception  in  some  single  aspect, 
and  his  thought  of  it  is  partial  and  fragmentary. 
But  the  veriest  fragment  of  thought  is  implicitly 
recognized  as  universal,  and  hence  the  word  de- 
noting it  is  unhesitatingly  applied  to  all  objects 
in  which  the  child  recognizes  the  mark  or  attri- 
bute which  had  originally  attracted  his  attention. 
The  greatest  errors  in  teaching  arise  from  the 
neglect  of  this  psychological  fact,  and  the  en- 
deavor to  force  the  young  mind  away  from  the 
similitudes  in  which  it  delights  by  exciting  a  pre- 
mature activity  of  distinction. 

*  The  Development  of  the  Intellect,  W.  Preyer,  p.  95. 


84  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

It  may  not  be  irrelevant,  as  showing  the  power 
of  analogy  over  the  mind  of  children,  to  call  at- 
tention to  their  tendency  to  find  in  similarities  of 
sound  indication  of  similarity  of  sense.  The  fol- 
lowing examples  are  cited  from  an  article  by  Dr. 
G.  Stanley  Hall :  "  Children  hear  fancied  words 
in  noises  and  sounds  of  nature  and  animals,  and 
are  persistent  punners — as  butterflies  make  but- 
ter, or  eat  it,  or  give  it  by  squeezing,  so  grasshop- 
pers give  grass,  bees  give  beads  and  beans,  kittens 
grow  on  the  pussy-willow,  all  honey  is  made  from 
honeysuckles,  and  even  a  poplin  dress  is  made  of 
poplar  trees.  When  the  cow  lows,  it  somehow 
blows  its  own  horn;  crows  and  scarecrows  are 
confounded ;  ant  has  some  subtle  relationship  to 
aunt ;  angleworm  suggests  angle,  or  triangle,  or 
ankle;  Martie  eats  " tomarties '^ ;  a  holiday  is  a 
day  to  ^^  holler  "  on ;  Harry  O'Neil  is  nicknamed 
Harry  Oatmeal;  isosceles  is  somehow  related 
to  sausages;  October  suggests  knocked-over.^' * 
Doubtless  in  many  of  these  expressions  the  chil- 
dren were  merely  "  playing  with  words,''  but  oth- 
ers seem  to  indicate  mental  confusion,  and  it  is 
undeniable  that  the  reaction  of  fantastic  analo- 
gies between  the  sounds  of  words  often  produces 
distortion  of  thought.  A  little  attention  on  the 
part  of  kindergartners   to  the  sense  in  which 

*  Contents  of  Children's  Minds,  0.  Stanley  Hall. 


THE  SYMBOLISM  OF  CHILDHOOD.  85 

their  young  charges  use  words  would  be  of  incal- 
culable benefit  to  the  children  themselves,  and 
would  throw  much  light  on  the  workings  of  their 
minds. 

In  his  play  no  less  than  in  his  speech  the 
child  reveals  the  analogical  activity  of  his  mind. 
It  has  often  been  observed  that  little  girls  will 
turn  with  indifference  from  dolls  which  are 
triumphs  of  the  toyman^s  art  to  lavish  caresses 
upon  a  towel  rolled  into  the  shape  of  a  cylinder, 
or  even,  as  in  the  case  narrated  by  Richter,  upon 
a  shabby  bootjack.  So  the  boy  finds  more 
charm  in  his  f ather^s  cane  than  in  his  own  hob- 
by-horse. These  preferences  are  explained  by 
the  fact  that  a  toy  is  only  a  symbol,  whereas  it  is 
the  spiritual  reality  which  the  symbol  suggests 
that  allures  the  imagination.  What  the  girl  de- 
mands of  her  doll  is  the  quickening  of  maternal 
love  in  her  heart.  What  the  boy  craves  of  his 
horse  is  that  it  shall  waken  a  presentiment  of  his 
own  power  over  nature.  The  too  perfect  toy 
chills  the  imagination,  and  hence  the  child  turns 
from  it  to  objects  which  by  remotely  suggesting 
an  ideal  heighten  the  activity  of  fantasy.  The 
true  plaything  is  only  "a  distaff  of  flax  from 
which  the  soul  spins  a  many-colored  coat.^'  It 
must  be  indefinite,  capable  of  many  transforma- 
tions and  able  to  act  many  parts.    Only  thus  can 


86  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

it  fulfill  its  twofold  mission — to  stimulate  crea- 
tive activity  and  satisfy  the  hunger  of  the  soul 
for  the  ideal. 

"  It  is  a  matter  of  surprise  to  some/^  writes 
Mme.  de  Saussure,  "that  children  are  satisfied 
with  the  rudest  imitations.  They  are  looked 
down  upon  for  their  want  of  feeling  for  art, 
while  they  should  rather  be  admired  for  the  force 
of  imagination  which  renders  such  illusion  pos- 
sible. Mold  a  lump  of  wax  into  a  figure  or  cut 
one  out  of  paper,  and,  provided  it  has  something 
like  legs  and  arms  and  a  rounded  piece  for  a 
head,  it  will  be  a  man  in  the  eyes  of  the  child. 
This  man  will  last  for  weeks ;  the  loss  of  a  limb 
or  two  will  make  no  difference ;  and  he  will  fill 
every  part  you  choose  to  make  him  play.  The 
child  does  not  see  the  imperfect  copy,  but  only 
the  model  in  his  own  mind.  The  wax  figure  is  to 
him  only  a  symbol  on  which  he  does  not  dwell. 
No  matter  though  the  symbol  be  ill  chosen  and 
insignificant;  the  young  spirit  penetrates  the 
veil,  arrives  at  the  thing  itself,  and  contemplates 
it  in  its  true  aspect.  Too  exact  imitations  of 
things  undergo  the  fate  of  the  things  themselves, 
of  which  the  child  soon  tires.  He  admires  them, 
is  delighted  with  them,  but  his  imagination  is 
impeded  by  the  exactness  of  their  forms,  which 
represent  one  thing  only;  and  how  is  he  to  be 


THE  SYMBOLISM  OF  CHILDHOOD.  87 


contented  with,  one  amusement  ?  A  toy  soldier 
fully  equipped  is  only  a  soldier ;  it  can  not  repre- 
sent liis  father  or  any  other  personage.  It  would 
seem  as  if  the  young  mind  felt  its  originality 
more  strongly  when,  under  the  inspiration  of  the 
moment,  it  puts  all  things  in  requisition,  and 
sees,  in  everything  around,  the  instruments  of  its 
pleasure.  A  stool  turned  over  is  a  boat,  a  car- 
riage ;  set  on  its  legs  it  becomes  a  horse  or  a 
table ;  a  bandbox  becomes  a  house,  a  cupboard,  a 
wagon — anything.  You  should  enter  into  his 
ideas,  and,  even  before  the  time  for  useful  toys, 
should  provide  the  child  with  the  means  of  con- 
structing for  himself,  rather  than  with  things 
ready  made.'^  *  It  is  superfluous  to  suggest  to 
any  one  familiar  with  the  kindergarten  how  per- 
fectly this  ideal  of  play  material  is  realized  in 
the  Froebel  gifts. 

As  analogy  rules  the  child's  speech  and  con- 
trols his  play,  so  it  determines  his  views  of  the 
world.  Like  primitive  man,  he  imputes  what- 
ever he  feels  within  him  to  the  objects  around 
him,  and  in  his  thought  all  things  live,  move, 
feel,  hear,  and  speak.  Tiedemann,  the  first  sci- 
entific student  of  infancy,  relates  that  when  a 
watch  was  held  close  to  the  ear  of  his  baby  son, 

*  Mme.  Necker  de  Saussure,  cited  in  Rosmini's  Method  in 
Education  (Grey),  pp.  340,  341. 


88  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

the  child,  noticing  its  ticking,  exclaimed  that 
Fripon,  a  little  dog,  was  shut  up  in  it.  So  when 
the  boy  did  not  see  the  sun  in  the  sky,  he  said : 
"  It  has  gone  to  bed ;  to-morrow  it  will  get  up 
and  drink  tea  and  eat  a  piece  of  bread  and 
butter.'^  *  Professor  Preyer  records  of  his  boy, 
that  when  dolls  were  cut  out  of  paper  in  his 
presence,  the  child  would  weep  violently  for  fear 
that  in  the  cutting  a  head  might  be  taken  off 
also ;  that  if  a  biscuit  were  divided  before  him 
he  would  exclaim  with  a  look  of  pity,  "  Poor 
biscuit !^^  while  the  words  "poor  wood^'  were 
uttered  sorrowfully  whenever  he  saw  a  stick  of 
wood  thrown  in  the  stove,  f  "  The  child,'^  says 
Richter,  "finds  nothing  lifeless  without  any 
more  than  within  himself ;  he  sjoreads  his  soul 
as  a  universal  soul  over  everything."  Hence  he 
says:  "The  lights  have  covered  themselves  up 
and  gone  to  bed.  The  spring  has  dressed  itself. 
The  wind  dances.  I  kiss  my  hand  to  the  spring. 
Is  the  moon  good  ?  and  does  it  never  cry  ?  "  t 

It  is  important  in  this  connection  to  remem- 
ber that  the  feeling  that  all  things  are  animated 


*  Tiedemaim's  Record  of  Infant  Life,  English  version  of  the 
French  translation  and  Commentary  by  Bernard  Perez,  with 
notes  by  F.  Louis  Soldan. 

t  Development  of  the  Intellect,  p.  161. 

J  Levana,  Bohn's  Standard  Library,  pp.  154,  339. 


THE  SYMBOLISM  OF  CHILDHOOD.  89 

by  personal  will  and  consciousness  maintains 
itself  long  after  the  belief  in  universal  vitality- 
lias  vanished.  Thus  a  little  girl  thirteen  years 
old  confides  to  me  that  though  she  has  known 
for  a  long  time  that  stones  and  trees  and  flowers 
are  not  like  people,  yet  she  sAweLjs  feels  as  if  they 
were ;  therefore  she  never  leaves  a  single  flower 
on  a  bush,  for  fear  it  may  be  lonesome ;  if  she 
gathers  autumn  leaves  from  the  maple,  she  makes 
it  a  point  to  take  some  also  from  the  neigh- 
boring oak  lest  she  should  arouse  envy  and  in- 
spire a  quarrel ;  and  when  she  has  thoughtlessly 
kicked  a  stone  out  of  its  place  in  the  road,  her 
conscience  pricks  her,  and  she  can  not  keep  down 
the  feeling  that  she  ought  to  put  it  back  so  that 
it  may  not  be  homesick.  Victor  Hugo's  little 
Cosette  picturing  to  herself  "  that  something  is 
somebody'^  is  the  type  of  childhood  the  world 
over. 

The  child's  belief  that  all  objects  have  life 
and  feeling  condemns  the  practice  of  those  who 
seek  to  please  and  comfort  him  by  beating  the 
stool  over  which  he  has  stumbled,  and  saying 
"  Naughty  fire ! "  to  the  flame  in  which  he  has 
burned  his  hand.  Children  are  all  too  ready  to 
blame  something  or  somebody  for  what  is  the 
result  of  their  own  ignorance  or  carelessness,  and 

we  can  not  begin  too  early  to  culti^*Ht}31ii-''»p-^     ^^^ 

§r^^  OF  ra^  ^-^ 


90  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

posite  habit  of  fair  and  kindly  judgment.  No 
mother,  therefore,  should  allow  her  child  to  treat 
even  a  chair  or  stick  in  a  way  she  would  be  un- 
willing to  have  him  treat  a  human  being.  He 
believes  in  universal  life;  hence  he  should  be 
taught  to  show  universal  kindness. 

In  ascribing  to  inanimate  objects  the  life  he 
feels  within  himself  the  child  takes  the  first  step 
in  mythology.  The  second  follows  when  by 
analogical  inference  from  the  relationship  be- 
tween his  own  inner  and  outer  life  he  explains 
the  course  and  change  of  nature  as  the  work 
of  active  though  invisible  spirits.  Some  years 
ago,  under  the  direction  of  Dr.  G.  Stanley  Hall, 
an  attempt  was  made  in  Boston  to  obtain, 
through  a  carefully  chosen  list  of  questions,  an 
inventory  of  the  contents  of  the  minds  of  chil- 
dren of  average  intelligence  on  entering  the 
primary  schools  of  that  city.*  One  of  the  most 
interesting  results  of  this  investigation  was  the 
light  cast  upon  the  animism  of  little  children ; 
another  was  the  abundant  proof  yielded  of  the 
fact  that  their  imagination,  like  that  of  primi- 
tive men,  receives  its  most  powerful  impetus 
from  the  phenomena  of  the  heavens.  Out  of  the 
large  number  of  children  questioned,  forty-eight 

*  Children  are  admitted  to  the  primary  schools  of  Boston  at 
five  years  of  age. 


THE  SYMBOLISM  OP  CHILDHOOD.  91 

per  cent  thought  that  at  night  ^Hhe  sun  goes, 
rolls  or  flies,  or  is  blown  or  walks,  or  that  God 
pulls  it  up  higher  out  of  sight.  He  takes  it  into 
heaven,  and  perhaps  puts  it  to  bed,  and  even  takes 
off  its  clothes,  and  puts  them  on  in  the  morning ; 
or,  again,  it  lies  tinder  the  trees,  where  the  an- 
gels mind  it  ...  So  the  moon  [still  italicizing 
where  the  exact  words  of  the  children  are  given] 
comes  around  when  it  is  a  bright  night  and  peo- 
ple want  to  walk  or  forget  to  light  some  lamps, 
it  follows  us  about,  and  has  nose  and  eyes,  while 
it  calls  the  stars  into  or  under  or  behind  it  at 
night,  and  they  may  be  made  of  bits  of  it.  .  .  . 
Thunder,  which  some  anthropologists  tell  us  is 
or  represents  the  highest  God  to  most  savage 
races,  was  apperceived  as  God  groaning,  or  kick- 
ing, or  rolling  barrels  about,  grinding  snow,  walk- 
ing loud,  breaking  something,  hitting  the  clouds,^' 
etc.  Lightning  was  explained  as  "  God  putting 
out  his  finger,  or  opening  a  door,  turning  a  gas 
quick,  or  [very  common]  striking  many  matches 
at  once,  throwing  stones  and  iron  for  sparks, 
setting  paper  afire,  or  light  going  inside  and  out- 
side the  sky,  or  stars  falling !  .  .  .  Finally,  God 
himself  was  conceived  as  a  big,  perhaps  a  blue 
man  very  often  seen  in  the  sky  or  in  clouds, 
in  the  church,  and  even  in  the  street ;  was  said 
to  live  in  a  big  palace,  or  in  a  big  brick  or  stone 


92  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

house  in  the  sky,  to  look  like  the  priest,  Froebel, 
papa ;  to  make  lamps,  babies,  dogs,  trees,  money, 
etc.,  and  to  have  the  angels  work  for  him."  * 

Fancies  such  as  these  result,  no  doubt,  from  a 
blending  of  the  child's  spontaneity  with  impres- 
sions received  from  external  sources.  It  must, 
however,  be  remembered  that  the  mind's  own 
attractive  and  repellent  power  determines  the  in- 
fluence it  receives  from  without,  and  hence  the 
impressions  voluntarily  entertained  by  little  chil- 
dren show  to  what  ideas  they  are  accessible. 
Thus  children  learn  from  older  persons  about 
God  and  angels,  but  they  cast  these  ideas  into 
molds  of  their  own  fashioning,  and  the  illustra- 
tions above  given  prove  beyond  dispute  how  fil- 
ially they  reproduce  that  mythic  stage  of  human 
experience  which  explained  all  the  phenomena 
of  nature  as  the  work  of  human  beings  or  beings 
akin  to  man. 

Closely  connected  with  the  animism  of  chil- 
dren is  their  proneness  to  impute  to  physical 
objects  a  power  for  good  or  ill  over  their  lives. 
What  they  wish  "  on  a  black  and  white  horse,'' 
or  looking  over  the  left  shoulder  at  the  new 
moon,  is  sure  to  be  granted ;  the  breaking  of  a 
mirror  foretells  disaster,  pearls  bring  tears,  and 
a  dream  of  the  loss  of  a  tooth  is  the  prophecy  of 

*  The  Contents  of  Children's  Minds,  G.  Stanley  Hall. 


THE  SYMBOLISM   OP   CHILDHOOD.  93 

the  death  of  a  friend.  Doubtless  children  learn 
these  superstitions  from  thoughtless  or  ignorant 
persons;  but  unless  there  was  something  in  the 
mind  that  responded  to  them  they  would  be  re- 
jected or  quickly  forgotten.  Moreover,  they  be- 
long to  the  childhood  of  the  race  as  well  as  to 
the  childhood  of  the  individual,  and  even  in 
times  which  may  be  called  recent  the  great  ma- 
jority of  men  heard  oracles  in  the  rustle  of 
leaves,  saw  omens  in  the  flight  of  birds,  and  be- 
lieved in  dreams  as  prophecies  of  impending 
events. 

One  of  the  cardinal  maxims  of  pedagogic  sci- 
ence is  that  the  educator  should  discover  and 
conform  to  the  mind^s  own  process  of  develop- 
ment. Such  marked  facts  as  those  we  have  been 
considering  may  not,  therefore,  be  safely  ignored. 
Learning  the  truth  that  underlies  them,  and  the 
needs  they  indicate,  we  shall  be  able  so  to  guide 
the  children  that  in  their  young  lives  the  mythic 
age  of  a  nobler  humanity  may  be  born;  or,  to 
quote  the  words  of  Froebel,  "  we  shall  revive  in 
childhood  the  legendary  period  of  human  his- 
tory, with  its  dross  cleansed,  its  darkness  illu- 
mined, its  aims  and  ideals  purified.^' 

What,  then,  are  the  lessons  to  be  learned  from 
childish  animism  and  superstition  ?  Surely,  the 
former  hints  the  soul's  premonition  of  the  fact 


94  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

that  all  true  being  is  spiritual  being — tbat  there 
are  and  can  be  no  real  forces  which  are  not  derived 
ultimately  from  the  forces  of  the  mind.  Surely, 
the  latter  is  rooted  in  a  deep  though  unconscious 
presentiment  of  the  manifold  correspondences 
between  the  life  of  nature  and  the  life  of  the 
spirit.  Surely,  education  should  take  account  of 
both  these  great  truths,  and,  by  presenting  them 
to  the  child  in  forms  that  appeal  to  his  sympathy 
and  imagination,  aid  his  effort  to  break  the 
chains  of  sense.  Those  of  my  readers  who  are 
familiar  with  the  writings  of  Froebel  will  rec- 
ognize in  this  brief  statement  an  echo  of  his 
thoughts,  and  a  key  to  much  of  the  symbolism 
of  the  kindergarten  games  and  gifts. 

As  the  power  of  imagination  expands,  the 
child  finds  an  inexhaustible  fountain  of  joy  in 
those  wonderful  fairy  tales  which  prefigure  the 
conquest  of  man  over  nature  and  over  himself, 
and  picture  in  symbolic  forms  the  free  energy  of 
spirit.  The  hero  of  fairyland  is  beautiful,  irre- 
sistible, invincible.  A  wonderful  belt  or  a  still 
more  wonderful  ointment  has  made  him  so  strong 
that  he  can  uproot  mountains  and  fling  them 
about  like  pebbles.  He  possesses  an  arrow  which 
never  misses  its  aim,  a  trumpet  at  whose  blast  the 
strongest  walls  fall  to  the  ground,  and  a  sword 
to  which  he  has  only  to  say  ^'  Heads  off ! ''  when 


THE  SYMBOLISM  OF  CHILDUOOD.  95 

all  his  enemies  fall  dead  at  his  feet.  Seven- 
league  boots,  a  magic  carpet,  a  wonderful  saddle, 
or  a  wishing  ring  give  him  the  freedom  of  space, 
and  time  exists  not  for  one  who  can  summon  at 
will  genii,  dwarfs,  and  elves  to  do  in  a  single 
night  the  work  of  a  lifetime.  He  is  the  owner  of 
a  table  which  upon  being  commanded  to  cover 
itself  is  straightway  loaded  with  the  choicest 
dainties,  a  tap  which  freely  pours  out  the  best  of 
mead  and  wine,  scissors  which  of  themselves  cut 
out  of  the  air  all  manner  of  fine  garments,  an 
axe  which,  needing  no  man  to  direct  its  blows, 
hews  down  the  densest  forests,  and  a  self -mov- 
ing spade  which  tirelessly  digs  and  delves,  and 
makes  earth  and  rock  fly  out  in  splinters.  Add 
to  these  possessions  a  wand  which  points  the  way 
to  hidden  treasures,  a  fruit  which  cures  all  dis- 
eases, a  salve  which  heals  all  wounds,  a  glass 
wherein  may  be  seen  at  will  all  that  is  going  on 
in  any  and  every  part  of  the  world,  and  a  cloak 
which  makes  invisible  its  all-seeing  owner,  and 
we  may  consider  our  hero  fairly  equipped.  With 
him,  stones,  trees,  and  animals  are  in  league.  Is 
there  a  secret  he  needs  or  longs  to  know  ?  The 
stone  which  lies  at  the  foot  of  his  bed  can  tell 
him  all  things,  even  declaring  to  him  whether 
the  maiden  he  would  wed  is  as  she  should  be — 
pure  and  bright  as  the  noonday  sun.    Has  he  in 


96  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

a  moment  of  inadvertence  been  blinded  by  a 
wicked  enemy  ?  Straightway  the  lime  tree  whis- 
pers that  he  need  only  rub  his  eyes  with  the  dew 
on  her  leaves  and  they  will  be  as  good  as  ever. 
Has  a  traitor  cut  off  his  head  while  he  slept  ? 
This  is  a  trivial  accident,  for  the  hare  whom  he 
has  befriended  knows  of  a  root  which  will  make 
body  and  head  grow  together  again.  Must  he 
find  the  heart  of  a  giant  hidden  in  an  egg,  which 
in  turn  is  safely  housed  in  the  body  of  a  duck 
who  swims  on  a  well  within  a  church  built  on  a 
far-away  island  ?  Let  him  not  doubt  or  hesitate, 
for  a  grateful  wolf  shall  carry  him  to  the  island, 
a  grateful  raven  procure  the  otherwise  unpro- 
curable church  keys,  and  the  egg  dropped  into 
the  bottom  of  the  well  shall  be  brought  up  safe 
and  sound  by  a  grateful  salmon. 

Such  is  the  hero  of  our  childhood — a  hero 
whose  lineaments  we  learn  later  to  recognize  in 
the  world  of  reality.  For  is  he  not  the  man  of 
the  Gatling  gun  and  the  nitroglycerin  bomb — 
the  possessor  of  the  steam  plow,  the  steamship, 
the  locomotive,  and  the  telegraph — the  man  of 
science  with  whom  all  nature  conspires — the  in- 
dividual member  of  that  great  whole  civil  soci- 
ety, who  multiplies  his  own  power  by  the  power 
of  all  other  men,  whose  table  is  covered  with  the 
products  of  every  clime,  and  who  reads  in  his 


THE  SYMBOLISM  OF  CHILDHOOD.  97 

morning  paper  the  news  of  the  world  ?  The  im- 
age of  this  hero  haunts  and  satisfies  the  imagina- 
tion of  the  child,  because  it  is  the  image  of  his 
ideal  self.  We  have  seen  how,  through  an  un- 
conscious process  of  analogy,  he  projects  his 
soul  into  inanimate  objects ;  in  like  manner  the 
unfading  charm  of  fairy  tales  is  explained  by 
the  mind's  presentiment  of  their  correspondence 
with  its  own  ideal  nature  and  destiny. 

Turning  our  gaze  from  the  hero  to  his  deeds, 
we  find  that  his  life  seems  mainly  devoted  to  the 
rescue  of  beautiful  maidens  who  are  generally 
princesses.  Sometimes  the  maiden  is  in  the  pow- 
er of  a  wicked  stepmother  or  witch;  sometimes 
she  wanders  bewildered  through  a  gloomy  forest ; 
sometimes  she  lies  in  enchanted  sleep ;  sometimes 
she  stands  fixed  in  the  earth  with  only  her  head 
visible ;  sometimes  by  the  devices  of  a  wicked 
magician  her  face  seems  full  of  wrinkles  and  all 
her  features  are  awry,  though  in  a  mirror  which 
she  holds  her  original  beauty  may  still  be  seen ; 
oftenest  she  has  been  carried  off  by  giant  or 
dragon  and  hidden  in  a  castle  under  the  sea,  on 
top  of  a  glass  mountain,  or  within  the  bowels  of 
the  earth.  No  matter  where  she  is,  the  hero  finds 
her )  no  matter  how  she  is  deformed,  he  recog- 
nizes her.  Up  the  glass  mountain  he  rides, 
through  the  unyielding  forest  he  penetrates ;  he 


98  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

slays  the  fire-breathing  dragon,  cuts  off  the  giant^s 
multifarious  heads,  casts  the  wicked  witch  into  a 
pit  of  serpents,  and  finds  the  crystal  ball  which 
destroys  the  power  of  the  magician  and  restores 
to  the  disfigured  princess  the  beauty  which  had 
been  the  wonder  of  the  world. 

And  now,  must  we  not  ask  ourselves,  who  is 
this  princess  so  beset  by  evil  powers,  so  triumph- 
ant over  them  ?  Does  her  history  find  no  paral- 
lel in  our  own  experience  ?  Have  we  never  felt 
the  power  of  the  witch,  the  giant,  and  the  dragon  ? 
Have  we  never  lain  in  enchanted  sleep  ?  never 
beaten  against  the  strong  bars  of  a  prison  ?  never 
gazed  in  the  mirror  of  the  ideal  and  wept  over 
our  own  deformity  ?  In  a  word,  must  we  not 
recognize  in  the  princess  an  image  of  the  human 
soul  shut  up  in  the  castle  of  sense,  its  ideals 
dormant,  its  energies  unaroused ;  or,  again,  dis- 
figured by  evil,  and  a  victim  alike  to  giants  of 
ignorance  and  dragons  of  sin  ? 

It  is  true  that  the  representations  of  giant, 
stepmother,  and  dragon  seem  often  to  indicate 
external  rather  than  internal  foes,  but  this  only 
shows  the  depth  of  feeling  out  of  which  these 
conceptions  sprang.  There  are  wild  forces  in 
nature  as  well  as  in  the  human  heart,  giants  of 
frost  and  heat,  swamp  and  desert,  poverty  and 
disease.    There  is  evil  in  the  world  which  must 


THE  SYMBOLISM  OF  CHILDHOOD.  99 

be  cast  out  unless  she  is  to  remain  forever  the 
stepmother  of  the  soul.  The  regeneration  of  the 
individual  involves  that  of  nature  and  of  soci- 
ety, and  our  latest  world-poet  has  taught  us  that 
not  until  man  has  created  a  world  of  freedom 
can  he  himself  be  free.  Standing  on  land  which 
he  has  rescued  from  the  sea,  and  among  a  people 
in  whom  he  has  created  his  own  image,  Faust 
hails  the  passing  moment,  "Ah,  still  delay,  thou 
art  so  fair ! ''  and  thus,  literally  losing  his  wager 
with  Mephistopheles,  wins  in  very  truth  the  final 
triumph  over  him. 

Humanity  conquering  and  redeeming — hu- 
manity emancipated  and  redeemed — such  are  the 
ideals  which  hover  before  us  in  the  images  of  the 
hero  and  the  princess.  The  picture,  it  is  true,  is 
indefinite,  but  life  and  experience  deepen  its  out- 
line, work  in  the  needed  light  and  shade,  and 
give  it  concreteness.  Thus  do  these  primitive 
conceptions  adapt  themselves  to  every  stage  of 
spiritual  development  and  resemble  those  mythic 
garments  which  grew  with  the  growth  of  their 
possessor,  and  fitted  him  equally  well  as  infant 
and  as  man. 

As  the  simple  heart  of  humanity  has  treas- 
ured the  image  of  the  hero,  so  also  has  it  en- 
shrined that  of  the  wanderer,  and  it  is  estimated 
that  about  four-fifths  of  the  folk-lore  of  northern 


100  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

Europe  is  made  up  of  stories  of  alienation  and 
return.  Cinderella  vanishing  from  the  disconso- 
late prince  but  leaving  him  the  slipper  through 
which  he  may  find  and  claim  her  as  his  bride,  is 
one  of  the  most  familiar  and  most  beautiful  tales 
of  this  class.  The  myth  of  Psyche  is  told  over 
again  in  the  German  story  of  the  Soaring  Lark, 
in  the  Gaelic  tale  of  the  Lady  of  the  Sky,  in  the 
modern  Hindu  Story  of  Gandharba-Sena,  and  in 
the  beautiful  Norse  tale  East  o'  the  Sun  and 
West  o'  the  Moon.  It  is  also  the  mythic  sub- 
strate of  our  own  nursery  story.  Beauty  and  the 
Beast.  In  all  these  tales,  after  sorrow  comes  joy, 
and  through  estrangement  is  brought  about  a 
deeper  union.  But  there  are  others,  such  as  the 
Story  of  the  Third  Royal  Mendicant  in  the 
Arabian  Nights,  where  the  hero  is  left  in  his 
estrangement,  and  we  are  made  to  feel  the  agony 
of  a  forfeited  happiness.  Finally,  in  such  tales  as 
the  Woodcutter's  Child  (Grimm)  and  The  Lassie 
and  her  Godmother  (Dasent's  Norse  Tales)  the 
spiritual  meaning  of  the  myth  becomes  apparent, 
and  we  recognize  that  we  are  reading  another 
version  of  the  story  of  Eden,  the  fall  and  the 
reconciliation. 

The  great  merit  of  fairy  tales  is  that  they  en- 
rich the  imagination  with  the  forms  into  which 
all  human  experience  is  cast.    "  The  power  that 


THE  SYMBOLISM  OF  CHILDHOOD.  IQl 

has  scarcely  germinated  in  the  boy^s  mind/^  says 
Froebel,  "  is  seen  by  him  in  the  legend  or  tale,  a 
perfect  plant  filled  with  the  most  delicious  blos- 
soms and  fruits.  The  very  remoteness  of  the 
comparison  with  his  own  vague  hopes  expands 
heart  and  soul,  strengthens  the  mind,  unfolds  life 
in  freedom  and  power/^  * 

I  have  illustrated,  in  perhaps  tedious  detail, 
the  sway  of  analogy  over  childish  minds,  because, 
though  the  fact  is  familiar,  the  educational  hint 
it  conveys  is  too  generally  neglected.  This  neg- 
lect explains  the  failure  of  many  of  Froebers 
disciples  to  enter  into  and  apply  his  ideas  with 
regard  to  symbolism.  For  what  is  a  symbol  but 
a  natural  object,  action  or  event  which  is  ana- 
logically related  to  some  spiritual  fact  or  process  ? 
And  what  is  the  symbolism  of  the  kindergarten, 
but  an  endeavor  through  the  use  of  typical  facts 
and  poetic  analogies  to  stir  the  child  with  far- 
away presentiments  of  his  ideal  nature,  his  spir- 
itual relationships  and  his  divine  destiny  ? 

The  symbolism  of  the  kindergarten  has  two 
distinct  phases.  The  first  and  simpler  phase  is 
that  wherein,  through  plays  representing  the 
typical  activities  of  Nature  and  of  man  and  the 
typical  relationships  of  the  individual  to  Nature 
and  to  man,  there  is  insinuated  into  the  child^s 

*  Education  of  Man,  translation  by  W.  N.  Hailmann. 


102  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

mind  a  sort  of  Ariadne  clew  to  the  labyrinth,  of 
experience,  and  he  is  prepared  to  master  instead 
of  being  mastered  by  the  infinitude  of  particular 
objects  and  events.  As  illustrations  of  this  phase 
of  symbolism  may  be  mentioned  such  games  as 
The  Barn- Yard  Gate  and  The  Little  Gardener, 
which  hint  the  responsibility  of  the  superior  to 
the  inferior  life;  all  the  plays  which  portray 
family  relationships  and  duties;  the  games  of 
the  farmer,  miller,  baker,  etc.,  which  picture  in 
symbolic  form  the  dependence  of  the  individual 
upon  the  organized  labor  of  civil  society ;  the 
soldier  plays  which  adumbrate  his  relationship 
to  the  state;  and  the  song  of  the  Church  Door 
and  Window,  wherein  a  hint  is  given  the  child 
of  the  deeper  meaning  of  that  sense  of  com- 
munity which  attracts  him  to  all  crowds  and 
assemblages  of  men,  and  fills  him  with  the  desire 
to  share  their  thought  and  aspiration.  Within 
this  class  of  symbolic  representations  fall  also 
those  endless  exercises  with  the  gifts  and  occupa- 
tions which  foreshadow  the  principle  of  organic 
unity,  and  illustrate  the  process  of  development. 
The  aim  of  these  exercises  is  to  quicken  a  pre- 
dictive sense  of  the  tie  which  binds  the  indi- 
vidual to  the  social  whole,  and  to  hint  the  filial 
and  ancestral  character  of  each  object  and  event. 
Thus  the  sequences  which  the  child  builds,  as 


THE  SYMBOLISM   OP  CHILDHOOD.  103 

well  as  the  sequence  of  the  kindergarten  gifts, 
point  on  the  one  hand  to  physical  evolution, 
wherein  each  form  "  remembers  the  next  inferior 
and  predicts  the  next  higher/'  and  on  the  other  to 
the  process  of  historic  development,  which  mag- 
nifies the  present  by  linking  it  with  the  past  and 
the  future. 

The  second  phase  of  kindergarten  symbolism 
deals  rather  with  poetic  correspondences  than 
with  typical  facts,  and  is  grounded  in  the  in- 
sight that  all  spiritual  truths  have  their  mate- 
rial analogues.  To  this  class  of  symbols  belong, 
among  others,  the  play  of  the  Bird^s  Nest,  which 
makes  objective  to  the  child  his  own  relationship 
to  his  mother ;  the  game  of  the  forth-flying  and 
home-returning  pigeons,  wherein  the  child  be- 
holds as  in  a  mirror  his  own  outgoings  and  in- 
comings ;  the  songs  which  deal  with  the  analogies 
between  physical  and  spiritual  light ;  the  play  of 
the  bridge,  which  is  a  symbolic  picture  of  the 
reconciliation  of  contrasts ;  the  plays  of  the  dart- 
ing fish  and  the  soaring  bird,  which  seek  to 
deepen  the  presentiment  of  spiritual  freedom 
stirred  by  the  sight  of  these  types  of  unimpeded 
activity  in  a  pure  element.  But  the  most  strik- 
ing example  of  this  aspect  of  symbolism  is  to  be 
found  in  the  development  of  the  kindergarten 
gifts  through  which  Froebel  aims  at  nothing  less 


104  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

than  to  put  into  the  hands  of  the  child  the  poetic 
key  to  Nature.  This  attempt  will  hereafter  be 
considered  in  detail,  but  for  the  present  I  must 
restrict  myself  to  reminding  the  reader  of  Froe- 
bel's  belief  that  the  nature  of  mind  is  the  law  of 
the  Cosmos,  and  to  the  general  statement  that  in 
his  gifts  he  endeavors  to  set  forth  as  in  a  parable 
that  ideal  of  man  as  Gliedganzes  which  was  the 
creative  source  of  his  entire  educational  work. 

Is  symbolic  education  original  with  Froebel  ? 
I  think  not.  He  learned  it  from  the  prattle  and 
play  of  the  child.  He  learned  it  from  the  child- 
hood of  the  race.  He  learned  it  from  simple- 
hearted  mothers  as  they  played  with  their  babies 
games  like  Pat-a-cake  and  the  Little  Pig  that  went 
to  Market.  He  learned  it  from  kindly  grand- 
mothers who,  sitting  by  bright  winter  fires,  re- 
lated to  wide-eyed  auditors  the  wonderful  adven- 
tures of  Thumbling,  or  the  sorrows  of  Maid-Ma- 
leen.  He  learned  it  from  the  poets  whose  tropes 
and  metaphors  stir  in  the  dullest  men  some  con- 
sciousness of  the  endless  analogies  between  the 
life  of  Nature  and  the  life  of  the  soul.  He  learned 
it  most  of  all  from  the  Great  Teacher,  who  de- 
lighted to  speak  to  the  multitude  in  parables, 
and  who  has  connected  our  deepest  spiritual  ex- 
periences with  the  lilies  of  the  field,  the  pearl  of 


THE  SYMBOLISM  OF  CHILDHOOD.  105 

great  price,  and  the  seed  hidden  deep  in  the 
earth. 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  even  for  a  moment, 
that  Froebel  explains  to  the  child  the  meaning 
of  his  symbolic  representations.  He  has  no  de- 
sire to  multiply  indefinitely  the  infant  Casaubon 
making  abstracts  of  Hop  o^  my  Thumb,  and  any 
such  use  of  his  games  and  gifts  would  only  cause 
Jbhem  to  resemble  that  same  Casaubon  who,  as 
described  by  the  racy  Mrs.  Cadwallader,  was 
"  like  the  wrong  physic — nasty  to  take  and  sure 
to  disagree."  Froebel  knows  that  the  mind  may 
be  trusted  to  universalize  its  ideas,  and  leaves  to 
its  own  alchemy  the  transmutation  of  the  symbol 
into  the  reality  symbolized. 

In  the  attempt  to  capture  and  hold  the  citadel 
of  imagination,  Froebel  makes  one  of  his  most 
signal  advances  upon  the  theory  and  practice  of 
his  predecessors.  Rousseau  had  nothing  to  say 
of  imagination,  save  that  it  is  the  source  of  all 
human  misery,  and  that  its  wings  should  be 
clipped  as  early  and  as  close  as  possible.  Pesta- 
lozzi  ignores  it — hence  the  dreary  monotony  of 
his  sense-impressing  exercises.  He  urges  us  to 
^^make  the  child  see,  hear,  and  touch  many 
things,"  to  "introduce  order  into  his  observa- 
tions," and  to  "  develop  the  elementary  ideas  of 
number  and  form  in  order  that  he  may  be  able  to 


106  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

compare  objects  and  exercise  his  judgment  upon 
them/^  But  the  necessity  of  a  ^^  spiritual  ques- 
tioning of  sense  and  outward  things  ^'  seems  to 
have  occurred  neither  to  him  nor  to  the  more  re- 
cent advocates  of  the  doctrine  that  all  thought 
is  transformed  sensation.  Hence  their  practice 
tends  to  arrest  development  at  its  starting  point, 
and  a  faithful  adherence  to  their  suggestions 
would  produce  in  the  pupil  a  strong  likeness  to 
that  Peter  Bell  on  whom  Wordsworth  has  con- 
ferred so  inglorious  an  immortality. 

"Whether  there  be  truth  in  the  opinion  that 
the  natural  and  spiritual  worlds  are  related  as 
type  and  archetype  is  a  question  which  each  per- 
son must  decide  for  himself.  The  symbolism  of 
the  kindergarten  is  neither  justified  by  an  affirm- 
ative nor  condemned  by  a  negative  decision, 
but  must  be  judged  as  we  judge  other  symbolism, 
by  its  relationship  to  the  needs  of  the  developing 
soul.  It  is  well,  however,  to  remember  that 
Froebel's  belief  on  this  subject  is  not  a  peculiar 
one,  but  has  been  shared  by  many  great  and 
devout  thinkers.  Fathers  of  the  Church  and 
Schoolmen  of  the  middle  ages  joined  in  the  dec- 
laration that  "the  whole  world  is  a  kind  of 
visible  gospel  of  that  Word  by  which  it  was 
created  ^' ;  *  and  one  of  the  greatest  of  modern 

*  Cited  from  Lux  Mundi. 


THE  SYMBOLISM  OF  CHILDHOOD.  107 

theologians — tlie  Rev.  F.  D.  Maurice — repeatedly 
expresses  the  thought  that  ^'  sensible  things,  by  a 
necessity  of  their  nature,  are  constantly  testify- 
ing to  us  of  that  which  it  most  concerns  us  to 
know — of  the  mysteries  of  our  own  life,  and  of 
God's  relation  to  us"  Swedenborg  proclaims  the 
doctrine  of  correspondence  as  the  key  that  un- 
locks the  meaning  of  the  world ;  and  Emerson 
declares  it  to  be  "implied  in  all  poetry,  in  alle- 
gory, in  fable,  in  the  use  of  emblems,  and  in  the 
structure  of  language."  Wordsworth  announces 
as  the  theme  of  The  Excursion  "how  exqui- 
sitely the  individual  mind  to  the  external  world 
is  fitted,  and  how  exquisitely,  too,  the  external 
world  is  fitted  to  the  mind.''  The  "discerning 
intellect  of  man  "  must  be  wedded  to  the  "  goodly 
universe,"  and  the  poet  will  chant  "  the  spousal 
verse  of  this  great  consummation."  Finally,  we 
may  appeal  to  the  witness  of  Goethe,  who  in  the 
prologue  to  Faust  affirms  that  the  mission  of  the 
poet  is  to  "  call  the  particular  fact  to  its  univer- 
sal consecration,"*  while  in  the  mystic  chorus 
which  concludes  this  great  drama  of  the  soul 
he  declares  "all  that  is  transitory  to  be  but  a 
symbol." 

Recognizing    the    relationship   between   the 

*  Commentary  on  Goethe's    Faust,  D,  J.  Snider,  vol.  i, 
p.  114, 

9 


108  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

world  of  Nature  and  the  world  of  spirit,  and  with 
clear  insight  into  the  psychologic  fact  that  feel- 
ing holds  in  solution  the  truths  which  are  later 
precipitated  in  the  crystal  forms  of  conscious 
intelligence,  Froebel  strove  to  present  the  ideals 
of  reason  under  the  images  of  phantasy  and 
thus  to  prepare  the  way  for  their  discovery  to 
thought.  The  too  frequent  misunderstanding 
of  kindergarten  symbolism  is  due  to  a  lack  of 
insight  into  the  relationship  between  the  lower 
and  higher  forms  of  intelligence.  It  is  assumed 
that  consciousness  and  reason  are  convertible 
terms,  and  that  lack  of  the  one  implies  absence 
of  the  other.  Unconscious  or  partly  conscious 
reason  seems  to  be  a  contradiction  in  terms.  Yet 
it  is  admitted  that  there  is  reason  in  nature,  and 
that  material  objects  and  processes  conform 
blindly  to  ideal  types.  With  equal  truth  it  may 
be  affirmed  that  reason  is  always  present  in  the 
soul — is,  indeed,  one  with  the  soul — and  that 
spiritual  advance  consists  simply  in  an  increas- 
ing consciousness  of  its  nature  and  scope. 

Upon  his  recognition  of  this  cardinal  truth 
rests  Froebers  claim  to  be  considered  *Hhe 
psychologist  of  childhood,"  and  upon  the  prac- 
tical procedure  born  of  this  insight  rests  his 
chief  claim  to  originality  as  an  educator. 


V. 

THE  MEANING   OF  PLAY. 


"  Behold  the  child  among  his  newborn  blisses, 
A  six-years'  darling  of  a  pygmy  size  ! 
See  where  mid  work  of  his  own  hand  he  lies, 
Fretted  by  sallies  of  his  mother's  kisses, 

With  light  upon  him  from  his  father's  eyes ; 
See  at  his  feet  some  little  plan  or  chart, 

Some  fragment  from  his  dream  of  human  life, 
Shaped  by  himself  with  newly  learned  art  I 
A  wedding  or  a  festival, 
A  mourning  or  a  funeral, 
And  this  hath  now  his  heart. 
And  unto  this  he  frames  his  song, 
Then  will  he  fit  his  tongue 
To  dialogues  of  business,  love,  or  strife ; 
But  it  will  not  be  long 
Ere  this  be  thrown  aside. 
And  with  new  joy  and  pride 
The  Jittle  actor  cons  another  part ; 
Filling  from  time  to  time  his  "humorous  stage " 
With  all  the  persons,  down  to  palsied  age. 
That  life  brings  with  her  in  her  equipage. 
As  if  his  whole  vocation 
Were  endless  imitation." 
Ode :  Intimations  of  Immortality  from  Becollections  of  Early 
Childhood^  Wordsworth. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  MEANING  OF  PLAY. 

No  student  of  childhood  will  challenge  the 
assertion  that  its  most  characteristic  manifesta- 
tion is  play.  What  flight  and  air  are  to  the  bird, 
play  is  to  the  child;  it  is  both  his  distinctive 
activity  and  the  element  in  which  his  life  moves. 
In  play  he  suffers  the  constraint  neither  of  alien 
will  nor  of  self-imposed  purpose,  but  exercises 
an  activity  which  is  its  own  end  and  its  own 
reward.  To  study  him  in  his  play  is,  therefore, 
to  study  him  when  he  is  most  himself. 

Many  plays  originate  in  the  desire  to  exert 
force,  or  to  measure  it  against  the  force  of  others. 
The  same  instinct  which  impels  the  baby  to  push 
with  his  feet  against  his  mother's  breast  inspires 
the  child's  love  of  running,  leaping,  wrestling, 
and  throwing.  The  delight  he  feels  is  in  the 
consciousness  of  force;  the  stimulus  to  exertion, 
the  resistance  to  be  overcome.  Moreover,  by 
measuring  himself  against  others  he  compels 
them  to  recognize   his   strength,  and  thus  sat- 


112  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

isfies  that  craving  for  recognition  which,  is  at 
all  times  the  deepest  hunger  of  the  human 
heart. 

As  the  desire  to  exert  force  creates  games  of 
strength  and  skill,  so  the  hunger  to  comprehend 
impels  the  child  to  reproduce  in  play  the  life 
around  him.  In  their  activities  things  show 
what  they  are,  and  the  reproduction  of  the  ac- 
tivity is  the  first  step  toward  the  understanding 
of  the  object.  The  life  that  utters  itself  is 
known  in  the  uttered  word.  Spelling  over  the 
letters  of  the  word  we  enter  into  the  life. 
^'  What  the  child  imitates/'  says  Froebel,  "  he  is 
trying  to  understand.'^  He  turns  like  the  wheel, 
barks  like  the  dog,  says  "Moo!"  with  the  cow, 
and  "  Baa !  "  with  the  sheep ;  he  creeps  with  the 
mouse,  flies  with  the  bird,  springs  with  the  cat, 
and  climbs  with  the  squirrel.  "  I  will  be  each  of 
these  things,"  is  his  unconscious  thought,  "  that 
through  being  them  I  may  know  what  they  are." 

Even  more  significant  than  the  imitation  of 
alien  activities  is  the  child's  representation  of  his 
own  relationships  and  of  those  events  of  his  life 
which  have  most  deeply  impressed  his  feelings 
and  imagination.  Dr.  Stanley  Hall  tells  of  two 
little  sisters  who  never  tired  of  playing  sister- 
hood, and  I  have  myself  watched  a  child  of  three 
years  repeating  again  and    again  in  play  the 


THE  MEANING  OF  PLAY.  113 

happy  moment  wlien  she  was  first  allowed  to  see 
her  mother,  who  had  been  seriously  ill.  So  the 
favorite  amusement  of  a  much  -  traveled  baby 
was  to  float  paper  boats  over  the  miniature 
Atlantic  of  a  basin  of  water  and  revive  the 
thrilling  alternations  of  welcome  and  farewell. 
These  facts  hint  the  truth  that  external  events 
are  transmuted  into  experience  only  as  they  are 
reproduced  in  imagination  and  thought,  and  that 
life  must  be  relived  in  order  to  be  under- 
stood. 

The  highest  form  of  play  is  a  synthesis  of 
the  other  two.  The  instinctive  exertion  of  in- 
dwelling force  and  the  instinctive  imitation  of 
external  activities  blend  in  the  effort  to  create  an 
ideal  world,  and  the  child  throws  into  an  active 
poem  the  total  life  within  and  around  him.  The 
personages  of  his  drama  are  flowers  and  birds, 
animals  and  insects;  his  relatives,  friends,  and 
neighbors;  kind  fairies,  cruel  ogres,  and  mali- 
cious dwarfs.  The  one  sole  actor  is  the  child 
himself  who  feels  softly  stirring  within  him  the 
pulses  of  the  universal  heart.  Reproducing  his 
experience  as  a  whole,  he  interprets  it  to  himself, 
and,  thus  transfigured,  it  constitutes  the  spiritual 
environment  in  which  he  lives  and  moves  and 
has  his  being.  Moreover,  in  becoming  creative, 
play  conquers  its  own  ideal  form  and  witnesses 


114  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

to  the  truth,  that  man  is  made  in  the  image  of 
God,  "  the  perfect  Poet  who  in  Creation  acts  his 
own  conceptions/^ 

Thns  far  we  have  considered  the  play  of  a 
solitary  child ;  it  must  now  be  observed  that  only 
as  it  becomes  social  is  play  clearly  revealed  in  its 
double  nature — as,  on  the  one  hand,  the  expres- 
sion of  indwelling  force,  and,  on  the  other,  the 
mirror  held  up  to  life.  In  the  play  world,  as  in 
the  actual  world,  there  are  parents  and  children, 
nurses  and  babies,  teachers  and  pupils.  There  is 
social  life,  with  its  interchange  of  visits,  its  en- 
tertainments, and  its  gossip ;  there  are  weddings, 
baptisms,  and  funerals.  Again,  the  play  world 
has  its  trades  and  professions,  its  varied  round  of 
work,  its  circle  of  pleasures.  Here  the  miniature 
Barnum  exhibits  his  menagerie  of  wild  beasts; 
yonder  is  a  theater  on  whose  boards  a  coquettish 
Cinderella  tries  on  her  diminutive  slipper,  or 
the  Sleeping  Beauty  is  awakened  by  the  Fairy 
Prince.  Now  we  come  to  a  church  from  whose 
pulpit  some  infant  Boanerges  thunders  wrath 
upon  the  doers  of  evil,  and  anon  we  enter  a  hos- 
pital where  grave  child-doctors  are  examining 
pulses  and  taking  temperatures  with  button- 
hooks, while  little  white-capped  nurses  vibrate 
between  the  enormities  of  Sairy  Gamp  and  the 
devotion  of  Sister  Dora.    Finally,  the  world  of 


THE  MEANING  OF  PLAY.  115 

childish  imagination  has  its  different  states,  with 
their  boundaries  and  treaties,  their  foreign  wars 
and  domestic  revolutions,  and,  strangest  of  all, 
it  has  its  written  and  spoken  languages — the 
former  a  reproduction  of  the  primitive  picture- 
writing  of  mankind,  the  latter  formed  variously 
by  adding  some  fixed  syllable  to  the  end  of  each 
word,  introducing  a  fixed  syllable  before  every 
vowel,  or  rebaptizing  the  letters  of  the  alphabet 
and  spelling  out  each  word  with  these  strange- 
sounding  letters. 

To  objectify  himself,  to  take  the  world  into 
himself,  and  to  discover  and  represent  the  ideal 
implicit  in  each — such  are  the  deep  impulses 
which  stir  the  child  to  play,  as  later  they  impel 
the  man  to  literature  and  art.  With  a  presenti- 
ment of  the  truth  that  to  find  himself  he  must 
flee  himself,  the  soul  of  the  child  knocks  at  the 
gate  of  the  universal  life.  The  ideal  which  he 
holds  up  to  himself  in  play  reacts  upon  his  char- 
acter, and  what  he  represents  himself  as  being 
he  actually  strives  to  become.  Need  we  wonder, 
therefore,  that  Schiller  can  so  emphatically  as- 
sert that  man  is  only  man  when  he  plays  ?  and 
thoughtful  Jean  Paul  affirm  that  as  meat  and 
drink  are  man's  first  prose,  and  as  the  necessity 
of  obtaining  these  creates  trades  and  handicrafts, 
so  is  play  his  first  poetry  and  the  instrument 


116  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

througli  which  all  his  higher  possibilities  are 
developed  ? 

From  insight  into  the  deep  meaning  that  lies 
hid  in  childish  play  there  is  but  a  single  step  to 
its  use  as  a  factor  in  education.  This  step  Froebel 
was  the  first  to  take,  and  by  taking  it  he  placed 
himself  in  the  van  of  educational  reformers. 

That  we  may  fully  enter  into  Froebers  view 
of  play,  we  must  revert  for  a  moment  to  his  cen- 
tral thought  of  man  as  Gliedganzes  of  human- 
ity. Man  is  self -creative,  hence  free.  He  creates 
himself  through  ideals.  These  ideals  are  not 
individual,  but  generic;  to  develop,  therefore, 
means  to  become  generic.  It  follows  that  the 
individual  can  develop  only  by  actively  repro- 
ducing within  himself  the  experience  of  man- 
kind. In  the  years,  few  and  feeble,  of  his  earthly 
life  he  can  find  out  but  little  for  himself,  and 
must  therefore,  without  detriment  to  his  sponta- 
neity, learn  the  lesson  of  the  centuries.  It  is  not 
sufficient  that  he  be  taught  externally  the  net 
outcome  of  human  endeavor,  for  he  comprehends 
and  acquiesces  in  the  result  only  as  he  relives 
the  successive  struggles  by  which  it  has  been 
achieved.  The  error  of  all  formal  teaching  is 
that  it  imposes  a  result  without  reproducing  the 
experiences  through  which  it  was  reached;  the 
characteristic  of  all  vital  teaching  is  the  develop- 


THE  MEANING  OF  PLAY.  117 

ment  of  ideas  in  the  order  of  their  origination. 
For  every  thought  has  its  pedigree,  and  it  must 
be  generated  in  the  mind  of  the  individual  as  it 
was  generated  in  the  mind  of  the  race. 

The  heir  of  all  the  ages  must  enter  upon  his 
inheritance  before  he  can  become  the  instrument 
of  their  increasing  purpose.  He  must  recreate 
the  simple  arts  through  which  man  first  asserted 
his  dominion  over  nature.  He  must  dream  over 
again  the  dreams  of  Reason  preserved  for  him  in 
myth  and  fable.  He  must  stand  before  the  Pyra- 
mids, and  solve  the  riddle  of  the  Sphinx.  He 
must  fight  for  Helen  before  the  walls  of  Troy, 
and  break  the  power  of  the  Persian  upon  the 
plain  of  Marathon.  He  must  march  with  the 
Roman  legions  to  universal  conquest,  and,  sink- 
ing himself  into  the  depths  of  the  Roman  spirit, 
evolve  therefrom  the  conception  of  universal  law. 
Ho  must  feel  the  anguish  of  the  nations  "  sitting 
in  darkness  and  in  the  shadow  of  death,'^  and  be- 
hold with  the  awe-struck  shepherds  the  dawning 
of  the  world's  light.  He  must  learn  reverently 
the  lesson  of  those  ten  silent  centuries  which 
found  a  voice  in  Dante,  then  hasten  to  England 
to  win  the  victory  of  Runnymede,  and  sit  at  the 
feet  of  SlTakespeare.  He  must  sail  with  Colum- 
bus over  unknown  seas,  land  with  the  Pilgrims 
on  Plymouth  Rock,  draw  the  sword  with  Wash- 


118  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

ington,  and,  standing  with.  Goethe  on  the  heights 
overlooking  Valmy,  behold  in  that  momentous 
battle  the  birth  of  a  new  era.  Thus  only  can  the 
world  into  which  he  is  born  be  born  again  in  him, 
and  the  aspiration  of  his  age  become  the  aspira- 
tion of  his  soul. 

The  object  of  education  is  to  aid  the  effort  of 
the  individual  to  ascend  into  the  life  of  the  spe- 
cies. Evidently  it  confronts  its  greatest  diffi- 
culty in  the  attempt  to  influence  and  direct  the 
unconscious  thought  of  the  child.  For  the  youth 
who  has  learned  to  think  and  who  is  eager  to 
know,  all  difficulties  have  vanished.  Science 
teaches  him  to  perform  for  himself  the  experi- 
ments which  lead  up  to  her  results.  Studying 
the  achievements  of  historic  races,  learning  their 
languages,  and  surrendering  himself  to  the  coer- 
cive charm  of  their  literature  and  art,  he  enriches 
himself  with  their  distinctive  life.  So,  through 
the  newspapers,  through  travel,  and  through  the 
reaction  of  social  institutions,  he  is  borne  for- 
ward on  the  strong  current  of  the  universal  life 
of  to-day.  If,  with  all  these  helps,  any  man  re- 
main temporal  or  provincial,  the  responsibility 
rests  first  with  himself  and  next  with  those  who, 
in  Kis  irresponsible  childhood,  narrowed  his  sym- 
pathies, paralyzed  his  curiosity,  and  warped  his 
thotight. 


THE  MEANING  OF  PLAY.  119 

Interest  in  the  life  that  is  behind  us  is  born 
of  interest  in  the  life  that  is  around  us,  and  the 
chief  duty  of  early  education  is  to  foster  those 
sympathies  with  nature  and  man  out  of  which 
springs  the  desire  to  study  the  processes  of  the 
one  and  appropriate  the  experiences  of  the  other. 
"At  five  years  old/^  says  George  Eliot,  "mortals 
are  not  prepared  to  be  stimulated  by  abstract 
nouns  or  'to  soar  above  preference  into  impar- 
tiality, and  that  prejudice  in  favor  of  milk  with 
which  we  blindly  begin  is  a  type  of  the  way 
body  and  soul  must  be  nourished  at  least  for  a 
time/^  May  not  the  deepest  truths  be  made  to 
stir  as  presentiments  in  the  awakening  mind  ? 
May  not  the  profoundest  spiritual  insights  be 
rooted  in  the  sympathies  and  fostered  by  exer- 
tions of  the  will  ?  May  not  the  child  receive 
even  in  babyhood  a  prejudice  in  favor  of  the  uni- 
versal life,  and  from  the  beginning  of  his  con- 
scious career  live  in  the  clear  sunlight  and  fresh 
air  of  the  generic  ideal,  instead  of  being  shut 
up  in  the  prison  walls  of  his  own  atomic  indi- 
viduality ? 

"  We  live  by  admiration,  hope,  and  love,  ^^5^^^^ 

And  even  as  these  are  well  and  wisely  fixed^^^^^   ^-^  T 
In  dignity  of  being  we  ascend."  fl  W  If  J  IT  TB 

Recurring  to  our  analysis  of  play,  we  oi|^i!^«^  r«?* 
that  the  end  we  have  now  defined  is  preciselyria^^^i/ 


120  SYMBOLIC  EDUCx\TION. 

result  the  child  blindly  seeks.  He  is  striving  to 
interpret  the  world  by  creating  its  image.  For 
obvious  reasons  his  efiPorts  can  be  only  partially 
successful.  He  is  unable  to  distinguish  the  form 
of  the  ideal  from  the  wrappage  of  the  actual  life, 
and  his  picture  of  human  deeds,  being  without 
perspective,  is  necessarily  a  caricature.  His  play 
is  defective,  not  because  it  reflects  both  the  good 
and  the  evil  in  his  surroundings,  but  because  it 
does  not  portray  the  good  as  good  and  the  evil 
as  evil.  I  remember  a  little  girl  who,  after  un- 
mercifully beating  the  playmate  who  was  per- 
sonating her  daughter,  explained  that  she  was 
not  a  real  mother  unless  she  could  whip  her 
child  as  much  as  she  wished.  In  general,  children 
seem  to  have  a  special  relish  for  portraying  cruel 
parents,  tyrannical  teachers,  and  refractory  pu- 
pils, and  they  also  delight  in  mimicking  the  snob- 
bishness and  insincerity  of  our  social  intercourse, 
and  the  affectations  which  characterize  many  of 
our  fashions. 

The  traditional  games  handed  down  from  age 
to  age  are  truer  than  those  of  the  individual 
child,  because  they  image  a  wider  life ;  they  are 
defective,  in  that  they  sometimes  accentuate  van- 
ishing rather  than  permanent  elements  of  ex- 
perience, and  in  that  they  often  reflect  not  a 
healthy  but  a  depraved  social  condition.    Thus, 


THE  MEANING  OP  PLAY.  121 

among  the  favorite  games  of  Frencli  children  is 
one  which  represents  an  interview  between  a 
priest  and  a  penitent  who,  confessing  to  the  griev- 
ous offense  of  stealing  a  pin,  is  for  punishment 
commanded  to  kiss  the  confessor ;  the  refrain  of 
the  song  which  accompanies  the  game  being,  "  If 
penance  is  so  delightful,  I'll  sin  again  and  again."  * 
Another  play  pictures  an  interview  between  a  mar- 
ried woman  and  her  lover,  the  heroine  exhorting 
the  hero  to  fly  from  her  husband,  who  has  broken 
his  promise  of  going  to  the  country  that  day. 
The  games  of  American  children  are  generally  of 
purer  moral  tone;  still,  their  darling  theme  is 
courtship  and  marriage,  and  their  favorite  climax 
a  kiss.  Illustrations  are  superfluous,  for  we  have 
all  seen  some  eager  child  turn  from  "East  to 
West  to  choose  the  one  she  loved  the  best,''  and 
observed  the  excitement  of  all  the  little  players 
at  the  thrilling  moment  when  the  chorus  sang : 

"  Open  the  ring  to  let  him  in, 
And  kiss  him  as  he  enters  in." 

To  make  explicit  the  ideal  implicit  in  instinc- 
tive play  is  the  aim  of  Froebel  in  his  Mutter  und 
Kose  Lieder.  This  aim  he  accomplishes  by  neg- 
lecting the  accidental  and  emphasizing  the  typ- 

♦  I  am  told  that  this  game  is  occasionally  played  by  Ameri- 
can children. 


122  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

ical  aspects  of  Nature  and  of  human  life.  It  is  not 
intended  that  the  games  suggested  by  him  shall 
be  exclusively  played,  nor  even  played  at  all  if 
others  can  be  found  which  embody  in  better  po- 
etic form  the  same  universal  ideals  and  aspira- 
tions. It  is,  however,  emphatically  claimed  that 
Froebel  pioneers  the  effort  to  transfigure  play, 
and  that  all  future  advance  must  be  upon  the 
path  which  he  has  broken. 

Undoubtedly  instinctive  and  traditional  games 
furnish  the  material  which  may  be  transfigured 
into  truly  educative  play.  The  claim  that  any 
one  person  (and  that  person  an  old  man)  could 
evolve  a  complete  series  of  games,  as  the  Ger- 
man artist  evolved  the  camel  "  out  of  the  silent 
depths  of  his  own  moral  consciousness,^^  is  an 
absurdity.  Froebel  never  claimed  it  for  himself, 
nor  has  any  sensible  disciple  claimed  it  for  him. 
What  he  does  claim  is,  that,  through  insight 
into  the  generic  ideal,  we  may  select  from  among 
traditional  games  those  which  will  develop  the 
child  into  its  image;  that  we  may  reproduce 
them  in  a  form  adequate  to  their  aim ;  and  that 
we  may  present  them  not  abstractly  and  alone, 
but  in  a  logically  related  sequence.  Thus  pre- 
sented, each  game  re-enforces  all  the  others,  and 
becomes  a  vital  element  in  a  developing  process. 
Each  new  generation  must  add  plays  imaging 


THE  MEANING   OF  PLAY.  123 

the  fresh  elements  of  experience,  and,  finally, 
each  individual  child  needs  dramatic  reproduc- 
tion of  the  vital  and  formative  facts  of  his  own 
life. 

We  count  it  the  highest  achievement  of  liter- 
ary art  so  to  portray  human  deeds  as  to  reveal 
their  ethical  character.  We  esteem  it  a  mark  of 
poetic  genius  to  depict  nature  as  the  symbol  of 
mind,  and  to  show  in  "  light  and  skies  and  moun- 
tains the  painted  vicissitudes  of  the  soul.^'  We 
reverently  study  these  great  works  of  art  in  or- 
der to  clear  our  spiritual  vision  and  interpret  our 
own  fragmentary  experience.  Need  we  hesitate, 
therefore,  to  admit  that  the  child  requires  help  in 
his  efforts  to  interpret  the  life  around  him,  and 
that,  in  order  to  realize  its  own  ideal,  play  must 
be  purified  by  rational  insight  ? 

It  is  needless  to  add  that  Froebel  does  not  pro- 
pose to  do  away  with  the  free  play  of  childhood. 
For  such  free  play  there  is  plenty  of  time  outside 
of  the  three  hours  spent  in  the  kindergarten.  Its 
importance  as  a  means  of  preserving  intellectual 
balance  and  developing  individuality  can  not  be 
too  strongly  insisted  upon.  But  just  as  Froebel 
makes  *'  the  archetypes  of  nature  the  playthings 
of  the  child,"  and  thus  introduces  a  principle  of 
order  into  his  sense-perceptions,  so  he  presents  in 

the  kindergarten  games  the  typical  aspects  of 
10 


124:  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

nature  and  the  typical  deeds  of  man,  and  thus 
introduces  an  organizing  principle  into  the  im- 
agination. 

Having  discovered  the  procreant  idea  of  the 
kindergarten  games,  let  us  now  endeavor  to  trace 
the  genesis  of  the  gifts  and  occupations.  Direct- 
ing our  attention  once  again  to  the  spontaneous 
deeds  of  childhood,  we  observe  that  the  primitive 
impulses  to  express  the  inner  and  investigate 
the  outer  life  manifest  themselves  in  forms  other 
than  those  thus  far  considered.  Prof.  Preyer 
observes  that  "  the  most  remarkable  day,  from  a 
psychogenetic  point  of  view,  in  the  life  of  an  in- 
fant is  the  one  in  which  he  first  experiences  the 
connection  of  a  movement  executed  by  himself 
with  a  sense-impression  following  upon  it.'^  This 
experience  came  to  his  child  during  the  fifth 
month,  when,  upon  tearing  paper  into  smaller 
and  smaller  pieces,  he  noticed  on  the  one  hand 
the  lessening  size  of  the  fragments  and  on  the 
other  the  noise  which  accompanied  his  act.  In 
the  thirteenth  month  he  found  pleasure  in  shak- 
ing a  bunch  of  keys,  and  in  the  fourteenth  he 
deliberately  took  off  and  put  on  the  cover  of  a 
can  seventy-nine  times  without  stopping  for  a 
moment's  rest.  Still  later  he  enjoyed  pulling 
out,  emptying,  refilling,  and  pushing  in  a  table- 
drawer,  heaping  up  and  strewing  about  sand  and 


THE  MEANING  OF  PLAY.  125 

garden  mold,  throwing  stones  into  water,  and 
pouring  water  into  and  out  of  bottles,  cups,  and 
watering-pots.*  It  is  easy  to  see  that  each  of 
these  occupations  was  for  the  young  experiment- 
er both  a  step  in  the  discovery  of  his  own  self- 
hood as  a  causative  energy  and  a  step  in  the 
interpretation  of  external  objects. 

With  increasing  consciousness  of  his  own 
power  and  increasing  knowledge  of  the  proper- 
ties and  adaptations  of  objects  the  child  begins 
to  exercise  a  higher  form  of  causative  activity. 
Discerning  in  objects  some  ideal  possibility,  he 
seeks  to  make  that  possibility  actual,  and  the 
mere  exertion  of  force  rises  into  productive  and 
transforming  energy.  Observing  the  various 
forms  in  which  this  productive  energy  finds  ex- 
pression, wo  become  gradually  aware  of  a  fresh 
parallel  between  the  development  of  the  indi- 
vidual and  that  of  the  race.  Science  has  shown 
that  the  embryonic  period  of  physical  develop- 
ment is  a  masquerade  of  long-vanished  forms  of 
life.  In  like  manner  the  children  of  each  new 
generation  seek  instinctively  to  revive  the  life 
that  is  behind  them  and  in  their  favorite  occu- 
pations and  amusements  re-enact  the  prehistoric 
experiences  of  mankind.  All  children  crave  liv- 
ing pets,  build  sand  houses,  and  make  caves  in 

*  Preyer's  Development  of  the  Intellect,  p.  192. 


126  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

the  earth ;  are  fond  of  intertwining  bits  of  straw, 
paper,  or  other  pliable  material ;  delight  in  shap- 
ing bowls  and  cups  and  saucers  out  of  mud  ;  and 
are  inveterate  diggers  in  the  ground,  even  when, 
as  in  city  streets  and  alleys,  such  digging  is 
wholly  without  result.  Can  we  fail  to  recognize 
in  these  universal  cravings  the  soul  echoes  of 
that  forgotten  past  when  man  began  the  sub- 
jugation of  Nature  by  the  taming  of  wild  beasts, 
the  erection  of  rude  shelters,  the  weaving  of  gar- 
ments, and  the  manufacture  of  pottery  ?  Can 
we  doubt  that  the  order  of  history  should  be  the 
order  of  education,  and  that  before  we  teach  the 
child  to  read  and  write  we  should  aid  his  efforts 
to  repeat  in  outline  the  earlier  stages  of  human 
development  ? 

Even  more  interesting  than  the  reproduction 
of  primitive  industries  is  the  struggle  of  the 
child's  soul  to  express  its  own  nature  in  the 
varied  forms  of  art.  To  sing,  to  dance,  to  hear 
and  repeat  simple  rhymes  are  chief  delights  of 
all  young  children ;  and  alliteration,  too,  has  for 
them  a  tireless  charm.  Nor  are  they  less  eager 
to  build,  draw,  paint,  and  model.  To  a  pathetic 
experience  of  FroebePs  own  childhood,  when, 
with  such  material  as  he  could  pick  up,  he  vainly 
tried  to  imitate  a  Gothic  church,  may  be  traced 
the  impulse  which  bore  fruit  in  the  building 


THE  MEANING  OF  PLAY.  127 

gifts  of  the  kindergarten.  The  love  of  drawing 
shows  itself  in  many  forms.  The  child  draws 
with  his  finger  in  the  air,  traces  outlines  in  the 
sand,  makes  shadow  pictures  on  the  wall,  blows 
on  the  window-pane,  and  covers  its  clouded  sur- 
face with  his  motley  fancies,  and  even  bites  his 
cookies  into  the  forms  of  men  and  animals.  In 
like  manner  his  plastic  instinct  finds  satisfaction 
in  shaping  figures  out  of  wax,  clay,  or  dough, 
and,  lacking  a  paint-box,  he  will  find  or  invent 
coloring  material  for  himself. 

The  kindergarten  gifts  are  FroebeFs  practical 
response  to  the  cravings  of  childhood.  The  six 
soft  balls  of  the  first  gift,  and  the  sphere,  cube, 
and  cylinder  of  the  second  gift,  satisfy  on  the 
one  hand  the  primitive  desire  to  exert  force  and 
cause  change,  and  on  the  other  afford  typical  ex- 
periences of  movement,  form,  color,  direction, 
and  position.  The  care  of  animals,  the  cultiva- 
tion of  plants,  the  building  exercises  with  the 
third  and  fourth  gifts,  the  occupations  of  weav- 
ing, folding,  cutting,  sewing,  intertwining,  etc., 
accentuate  the  educative  elements  implicit  in  the 
industries  of  aboriginal  men ;  and  finally,  through 
the  architectural  exercises  of  the  fifth  and  sixth 
gifts,  through  the  work  with  tablets,  sticks,  and 
rings ;  through  drawing  and  painting  exercises ; 
through  peas-work,  and  through  clay  and  card- 


128  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

board  modeling,  the  artistic  powers  of  the  child 
are  called  into  happy  play,  and  he  becomes,  so  far 
as  in  him  lies,  an  architect,  painter,  designer,  and 
sculptor.  Add  to  these  varied  forms  of  artistic 
expression  the  kindergarten  games  with  their 
dramatic  representations,  rhythmic  movements, 
poetry  and  song,  and  we  must,  I  think,  admit 
that  Froebel  has  in  truth  provided  for  what  he 
is  fond  of  calling  ^^  the  all-sided  development  '^  of 
innate  powers. 

But,  urges  the  objector,  what  is  there  in  Froe- 
bel's  scheme  that  is  new  or  original  ?  Have  not 
wise  mothers  always  supplied  their  children  with 
balls  and  building  blocks,  encouraged  them  to 
roll  mud  pies,  shown  them  how  to  fashion  simple 
objects  out  of  paper  and  cardboard,  and  taught 
them  the  use  of  needle,  scissors,  pencil,  and  knife  ? 
Lovers  of  the  kindergarten  recognize  in  all  such 
criticisms  testimony  to  the  merit  of  Froebel's 
games  and  occupations,  for  were  these  something 
wholly  new  under  the  sun  they  would,  according 
to  all  sound  psychologic  principles,  be  something 
wholly  wrong.  Froebel  claims  only  to  do  with 
clear  consciousness  and  persistent  purpose  what 
maternal  instinct  has  always  blindly  and  inter- 
mittently attempted.  He  gladly  accepts  the  tra- 
ditional material,  but  vitalizes  it  by  giving  it  a 
mathematical  basis,  and  by  formulating  the  prin- 


THE  MEANING  OF  PLAY.  129 

ciples  which  should  govern  its  use.  Through  the 
productive  exercises  suggested  by  him,  the  child 
achieves  a  fivefold  development.  Advancing  from 
the  external  arrangement  of  fixed  material  to 
technical  and  artistic  processes,  he  gains  manual 
dexterity  and  skill.  Rising  from  mere  imitation 
and  production  by  rule  to  free  creation,  he  devel- 
ops originality  of  thought  and  power  of  expres- 
sion. Receiving  from  productive  activity  the 
incitement  to  observation,  he  studies  the  salient 
qualities  of  physical  objects  and  masters  thus 
the  alphabet  of  externality.  Energizing  to  re- 
alize in  external  things  his  vision  of  their  ideal 
possibilities,  his  will  power  is  strengthened,  and 
he  becomes  a  practical  force.  Last,  but  not  least, 
through  the  exertion  of  causal  energy  he  forms 
the  habit  of  looking  from  sensible  facts  to  their 
producing  causes,  and  of  explaining  all  objects 
and  events  through  their  process  of  evolution. 

Corruptio  optimi  pessima.  It  is  a  sad  thing 
for  any  one  who  has  mastered  Froebel's  prin- 
ciples to  witness  the  perverted  application  so 
often  made  of  his  gifts.  In  many  kindergartens 
the  sole  thought  seems  to  be  to  use  these  gifts 
for  teaching  the  elements  of  form  and  number ; 
in  others,  manual  dexterity  is  the  one  object 
sought ;  while  in  still  others  the  material  of  the 
gifts  suggests  tedious  object  lessons  on  wood. 


/ 


130  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

iron,  paper,  wool,  and  straw.  One  kindergartner 
catches  the  idea  of  sequence,  and  forthwith  she 
arranges  a  series  of  forms  and  drills  her  pupils 
to  repeat  them;  another  conceives  the  plan  of 
using  the  gifts  to  illustrate  the  songs,  and  pro- 
ceeds herself  to  work  out  exercises  showing 
"what  the  mind  did^^  or  "what  the  pigeons 
saw."  Finally,  the  kindergartner  who  is  really  a 
disciple  of  Rousseau,  though  she  imagines  her- 
self a  follower  of  Froebel,  blandly  leaves  the  chil- 
dren to  their  own  devices;  and  whether  they 
build  up  or  tear  down,  whether  they  work  with 
or  without  purpose  and  interest,  stands  aloof, 
serenely  confident  of  the  thaumaturgic  power  of 
wooden  cubes,  sticks,  and  tablets.  Seeing  these 
things,  one  ceases  to  wonder  at  Froebers  remark, 
that  if  in  three  hundred  years  after  his  death 
there  should  be  in  the  world  one  kindergarten 
like  that  in  his  mind,  his  fondest  hope  would  be 
more  than  realized. 

The  manifold  errors  of  kindergartners  can  be 
avoided  only  by  clear  insight  into  Froebel's  edu- 
cational aim.  That  aim  is  the  development  of 
creative  activity.  Like  Goethe,  Froebel  held  that 
"building  up  teaches  more  than  pulling  in  pieces; 
joining  together  more  than  separating ;  animat- 
ing what  is  dead  more  than  killing  over  again 
what  is  killed,"    Like  Carlyle,  his  cry  to  each 


THE  MEANING  OF  PLAY.  131 

individual  is :  "  Be  no  longer  a  chaos,  but  a  world, 
or  even  worldkin.  Produce  !  produce !  Were  it 
but  the  pitifulest  infinitesimal  fraction  of  a  prod- 
uct, produce  it  in  God's  name !  '^  For  the  ideal 
of  creativeness  in  education  he  lived,  and  toiled, 
and  pleaded.  In  the  light  of  this  ideal  his 
gifts  are  seen  to  be  instrumentalities  for  self- 
development  through  self  -  expression  ;  without 
such  light  they  collapse,  as  Mr.  Bowen  has 
aptly  remarked,  "into  mere  paper,  sticks,  and 
stones.^^ 

The  Hinterschlag  professor  who  knew  of  the 
human  soul  only  "that  it  had  a  faculty  called 
memory,  and  could  be  acted  on  through  the  mus- 
cular integument  by  application  of  birch  rods,'' 
had  a  simple  task.  The  kindergartner  who  has 
insight  into  Froebel's  idea  of  man  as  Gliedganzes 
must  expect  and  welcome  a  complicated  task. 
Two  thoughts  she  must  keep  ever  before  her: 
the  first,  that  every  exercise  she  gives  should 
incite  and  develop  self-activity ;  the  second,  that 
in  every  exercise  she  should  strive  to  multiply 
the  power  and  knowledge  of  each  member  of  her 
class  by  the  power  and  knowledge  of  all  its  other 
members.  In  this  way  alone  can  she  secure  the 
results  at  which  Froebel  aimed,  and  though  at 
first  the  path  be  narrow  and  the  ascent  steep,  she 
may  assure  herself  that  the  purgatorial  mount 


132  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

of  education  is  of  such  a  nature  that  ^^aye  the 
more  one  climbs  the  less  it  hurts." 

Froebers  enthusiasm  for  the  ideal  of  creative- 
ness  was  born  of  his  insight  into  the  nature  of 
mind.  His  whole  soul  was  fired  with  the  thought 
that  spirit  is  its  own  deed ;  that  man  knows  him- 
self only  in  so  far  as  he  makes  himself  objective ; 
and  that  he  knows  the  external  world  only  in  so 
far  as  in  some  form  he  recreates  it.  This  insight 
interprets  nature,  history,  and  theology,  as  well 
as  individual  life.  The  mystic  Plotinus  long  ago 
pointed  out  that  "  Nature  is  greedy  of  beholding 
herself."*  The  study  of  history  demonstrates  the 
truth  that  each  nation  is  the  bearer  of  an  idea. 
It  actualizes  this  idea  in  its  institutions  and  cus- 
toms, its  literature,  art,  and  philosophy ;  then,  its 
work  being  done,  it  gives  way  to  the  new  nation 
whose  idea  transcends  its  own.  God  himself, 
as  Infinite  Spirit,  objectifies  himself  in  an  infi- 
nite creation,  and  the  living  universe  is  at  once 
the  condition  and  witness  of  his  perfect  self- 
knowledge.  "  Of  little  children  is  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,  because,  unchecked  by  the  presump- 
tion and  conceit  of  adults,  they  yield  themselves 
in  childlike  faith  to  their  formative  and  creative 
instinct."  f 

*  Memoir  of  Bronson  Alcott,  Sanborn,  and  Harris,  p.  577. 
t  Education  of  Man,  Hailmann's  translation,  p.  81. 


THE  MEANING  OF  PLAY.  133 

Even  this  brief  survey  of  kindergarten  activi- 
ties throws  into  relief  the  radical  difference  be- 
tween the  views  of  Froebel  and  those  of  Pesta- 
lozzi.  With  Pestalozzi  the  great  word  is  sense- 
impression  ;  with  Froebel  the  great  word  is  self- 
expression.  The  former  imagines  a  process 
through  which  "things  stream  in  upon  the 
mind  " ;  the  latter  discerns  the  truth  that  "  the 
mind  streams  out  upon  things/'  The  one  trains 
his  pupils  to  note  in  all  objects  certain  constantly- 
occurring  qualities ;  the  other  seeks  to  quicken 
and  direct  the  mind's  premonition  of  causal  pro- 
cesses. In  a  word,  the  procedure  of  the  Swiss 
reformer  is  rooted  in  that  false  psychology  which 
holds  that  sense-perception  is  the  source  of  all 
our  knowledge ;  while  the  procedure  of  the  Ger- 
man educator  implies  the  deeper  insight  that 
"mind  grows  by  self-revelation."  "I  saw/' 
writes  Pestalozzi,  "that  through  recognition  of 
the  unity,  form,  and  name  of  an  object  my 
knowledge  is  definite  knowledge ;  by  the  gradual 
discovery  of  secondary  qualities  it  becomes  clear 
knowledge ;  and  through  understanding  the  con- 
nection between  all  the  characteristics  of  an  ob- 
ject it  becomes  specific  knowledge.''  "  The  child," 
writes  Froebel,  "develops  like  every  other  es- 
sential being  in  accordance  with  laws  as  simple 
as  they  are  imperative.    Of  these  laws  the  most 


V 

134  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

important  and  the  simplest  is  that  force,  existing, 
must  exert  itself ;  exerting  itself,  it  grows  strong ; 
strengthening,  it  unfolds ;  unfolding,  it  repre- 
sents and  creates;  representing  and  creating,  it 
rises  into  consciousness  and  culminates  in  in- 
sight/' 

The  kindergarten  is  the  apotheosis  of  play. 
It  is,  moreover,  a  practical  commentary  upon  the 
much-abused  maxim  that  education  must  follow 
the  child.  Froebel  follows  the  child  in  order  to 
lead  him.  What  is  new  in  his  method  is  the 
^'  induction  of  the  substance  of  prescription  into 
the  form  of  freedom.'^  *  What  he  accomplishes 
is  "  to  enable  the  pupil  to  walk  freely  in  directed 
paths."  Through  the  exercises  with  the  kinder- 
garten gifts  and  occupations  the  child  becomes 
increasingly  conscious  of  his  own  power  to 
master  the  external  world.  Through  the  ideals 
revealed  in  the  songs  and  games  he  is  incited 
to  self-mastery,  and  begins  to  feel  *^the  thing 
he  ought  to  be,  beating  beneath  the  thing 
he  is." 

The  symmetry  of  the  kindergarten  system  is 
much  impaired  by  our  failure  to  carry  out  in 
practice  FroebeFs  suggestions  with  regard  to 
gardening  and  the  care  of  pet  animals.  To  dig 
gardens  and  cultivate  plants  are  just  as  truly 

*  The  Place  of  the  Kindergarten,  William  T,  Harris. 


THE  MEANING  OF  PLAY.  135 

kindergarten  exercises  as  the  plays  with  balls, 
cubes,  tablets,  and  sticks.  The  same  is  true  of 
the  care  of  animal  pets.  We  have  been  supinely 
neglectful  in  both  these  matters,  and,  intrench- 
ing ourselves  in  the  sluggard^s  fortress  of  "im- 
possibility,^^ have  refused  to  make  the  earnest 
effort  to  which  all  so-called  impossibilities  sur- 
render. No  right  thing  is  impossible,  and  in  this 
case  the  objects  to  be  achieved  are  not  even  diffi- 
cult. What  kindergartner  can  not  get  a  large 
box  for  a  general  garden,  and  a  special  flower- 
pot for  each  child  ?  What  kindergarten  need 
be  without  pet  kittens,  a  hen  and  chickens,  and 
an  aquarium  ?  These  things  are  found  in  some 
kindergartens.  They  will  be  found  in  all  so  soon 
as  kindergartners  begin  to  realize  their  educa- 
tional importance. 

In  a  number  of  the  kindergarten  games  the 
child  pictures  his  ideal  relationship  to  the  animal 
world.  He  calls  and  feeds  the  chickens;  oj^ens 
the  door  of  the  pigeon  house,  that  the  glad  birds 
may  fly  out  into  the  sunshine;  closes  it,  that 
they  may  be  safe  at  night ;  fastens  securely  the 
barnyard  gate,  that  none  of  the  animals  may 
stray  from  its  safe  inclosure.  The  correlate  of 
this  series  of  games  is  actual  care  of  and  respon- 
sibility for  some  living  pet.  Froebers  system  is 
an  educational  organism,  and  we  can  not  lop  off 


136  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

one  of  its  main  limbs  without  detriment  to  the 
life  of  the  whole. 

By  connecting  the  actual  care  of  pet  animals 
with  plays  picturing  the  child's  duty  toward 
them  we  achieve  a  twofold  result :  we  stir  the 
young  heart  with  premonitions  of  the  privilege 
of  care-taking,  and  with  glimmerings  of  the 
gratitude  he  owes  to  those  who  have  cared  for 
him.  It  is  often  said  that  children  are  imper- 
vious to  the  feeling  of  gratitude.  The  reason  is 
obvious :  they  can  not  appreciate  the  care  given 
to  them  until  they  have  given  care ;  and  the  only 
way  in  which  mortals  of  any  age  can  learn  to  be 
grateful  is  by  doing  deeds  which  merit  gratitude. 
In  caring  for  animals,  moreover,  the  child  learns 
to  subordinate  his  pleasure  to  their  good,  purifies 
his  selfish  love  for  them  into  a  thoughtful  and 
protecting  affection,  and  fosters  in  his  own  heart 
that  spirit  of  good  will  and  helpfulness  which, 
transferred  from  feeble  and  defenseless  animals 
to  feeble  and  defenseless  human  beings,  blossoms 
into  the  disinterested  service  of  mankind. 

Those  educators  who  recognize  a  parallel  be- 
tween the  development  of  the  individual  and 
that  of  the  race  may  find  food  for  thought  in  the 
suggestion  that  the  chief  reason  why  the  move- 
ment toward  civilization  was  so  much  slower  in 
America  than  in  Europe  was  the  absence  from 


THE  MEANING  OP  PLAY.  "j^Y 

the  Western  continent  of  all  domestica^g^rr^l^r-''* 
mals  other  than  the  dog.*  Doubtless,  the  n^t: 
significant  features  of  the  transition  to  pastoral" 
life  were  that  it  broke  up  the  roving  habits  of 
savages,  gave  steadiness  and  permanence  to  hu- 
man activities,  and  set  in  motion  the  long  train 
of  social  and  political  ideals  latent  in  the  right 
of  personal  property.  But  when  men  ceased  to 
be  merely  hunters  and  fishers,  and  became  herds- 
men and  shepherds,  there  occurred  also  a  moral 
revolution.  The  attitude  of  man  toward  the 
brute  creation  became  protective  instead  of  pred- 
atory. This  changed  attitude  developed  intelli- 
gence and  sympathy,  and  fostered  those  instincts 
of  watchfulness,  fidelity,  and  self-sacrifice  which 
have  made  the  Good  Shepherd  the  tenderest  type 
of  divine  love  and  care. 

The  sense  of  duty  roused  by  responsibility  for 
pet  animals  may  be  strengthened  by  care  for 
plants,  and,  faithful  to  his  plan  of  suggesting 
ideals  in  play,  Froebel  gives  us  the  games  of  The 
Garden  Gate  and  The  Little  Gardener — the  idea 
brought  out  in  the  former  being  the  obligation 
of  the  child  to  guard  and  protect  the  flowers 
which  give  him  so  much  pleasure,  while  the 
thought  underlying  the  latter  is  the  privilege 
and  reward  of  nurture.    From  this  make-believo 

*  The  Discovery  of  America,  John  Fiske,  vol.  i,  p.  27. 


138  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

gardening  Froebel  wished  the  children  to  go  on 
to  the  actual  care  of  plants ;  and  the  omission  of 
garden  work  from  the  programme  of  the  kinder- 
garten robs  the  little  ones  of  many  precious 
experiences.  Childhood,  like  every  age  of  life, 
needs  its  duties,  and  these  must  be  simple,  defi- 
nite, and,  above  all,  inexorable.  Moreover,  the 
child  must  feel  that  his  duties  are  genuine,  and 
not  mere  burdens  imposed  upon  him  by  the  arbi- 
trary will  of  parents  or  teachers.  All  duties  are 
born  of  relationships,  and  should  be  rooted  in  the 
feelings  to  which  these  relationships  give  rise. 
Out  of  relationship  to  those  above  us  arise  the 
duties  of  trust  and  obedience ;  out  of  relationship 
to  those  who  stand  on  the  same  level  with  our- 
selves arise  the  duties  of  helpfulness  and  partici- 
pation; out  of  relationship  to  persons  or  things 
beneath  us  arise  the  duties  of  protection  and 
nurture.  Without  degree  ^'all  things  would  meet 
in  mere  oppugnancy^^;  through  degree  each  indi- 
vidual is  blessed  with  the  opportunity  of  culti- 
vating that  "threefold  reverence ^^  upon  which, 
as  Goethe  teaches  us  in  Wilhelm  Meister, "  de- 
pends everything  through  which  a  man  becomes 
man  on  every  side.^'  The  first  reverence  is  culti- 
vated in  children  through  their  relationship  to 
parents  and  teachers ;  the  second,  through  their 
relationship  to  each  other;  the  third  may  be 


THE  MEANING  OF  PLAY.  139 

most  effectively  developed  through  the  relation- 
ship to  animals  and  plants.  Flowers  not  watered 
will  wither ;  the  bird  or  kitten  not  fed  will  die. 
If,  through  sloth  or  thoughtlessness,  the  child 
fails  to  give  the  needed  care,  he  brings  upon 
himself  the  pain  of  loss.  Moreover,  he  must 
study  the  objects  of  his  care,  and  learn  to  under- 
stand the  needs  he  tries  to  meet.  Plants  must 
not  be  watered  in  the  hot  midday ;  many  plants 
die  if  watered  directly  on  the  roots.  Finally,  as 
the  child  matures,  he  should  learn  to  weed  his 
garden,  to  prune  his  plants,  and  to  inflict  upon 
his  dog  or  kitten  whatever  pain  is  needed  to  in- 
sure its  safety.  Through  such  experiences  he 
gains  reverence  "  for  what  is  beneath  him,''  and 
cultivates  the  strength  which  will  enable  him 
later  to  grapple  bravely  and  hopefully  with  the 
inevitable  trials  and  responsibilities  of  life. 

The  care  of  animals  and  plants  is  important 
for  its  influence  upon  the  intellect  as  well  as  for 
its  influence  upon  character.  It  is  needless  to  do 
more  than  allude  to  the  fact  that  what  the  child 
cares  for  he  will  observe  and  study,  and  that 
hence  gardens  and  living  pets  form  the  best  pos- 
sible introduction  to  botany  and  natural  history. 
Many  suggestions  with  regard  to  the  transition 
from  care-taking  to  observation,  from  observa- 
tion to  systematic  study,  are  to  be  found  scat- 
11 


14:0  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

tered  through  Froebers  writings,  and  should  be 
carefully  pondered.  The  main  points  upon  which 
he  insists  are,  that  attention  shall  be  directed  to 
distinctions  which  the  child  himself  is  capable  of 
making,  and  that  among  such  distinctions  those 
shall  be  selected  which  are  typical  and  charac- 
teristic. Thus  he  avoids,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
extreme  of  formalism,  and  on  the  other  that  arbi- 
trary classification  so  much  encouraged  by  "spon- 
taneous teachers,^^  and  which  reminds  one  of  the 
logic  by  which  the  pigeon  in  Wonderland  proved 
Alice  to  be  a  kind  of  serpent.  "  Do  you  eat  eggs  ?  '^ 
asked  the  pigeon.  "  Yes,^^  explained  Alice  ;  "  all 
little  girls  eat  eggs/^  "Well,  then,^^  announced 
the  pigeon  decisively,  "all  little  girls  are  ser- 
pents.'^ 

Our  survey  of  the  instinctive  manifestations 
of  the  child  has  shown  us  that  his  dominant  im- 
pulses are  to  reproduce  the  life  that  is  around 
him ;  to  revive  the  life  that  is  behind  him ;  to 
foster  the  life  that  is  beneath  him ;  and  to  pro- 
ject the  life  that  is  within  him.  Rooted  in  these 
generic  impulses,  the  kindergarten  may  be  sure 
of  a  healthy  and  vigorous  growth.  Detached 
from  them,  it  will  wither  and  die  like  the  rootless 
flowers  which  little  children  stick  into  the  sand. 

It  has  been  the  fashion  to  say  that  Froebel 
ignored  the  antithesis  between  work  and  play. 


THE  MEANING  OF  PLAY.  141 

In  my  judgment  it  was  precisely  because  he  un- 
derstood this  antithesis  that  he  was  able  to  invent 
the  kindergarten. 

In  work  the  mind  concentrates  itself ;  in  play 
it  surrenders  itself  to  the  allurement  of  its  ob- 
ject. Work  demands  the  subordination  of  per- 
sonal inclination ;  play  occupies  itself  according 
to  its  own  caprice ;  work  seeks  an  end  diflferent 
from  its  activity ;  in  play  the  end  sought  is  the 
activity  itself ;  work  prepares  the  individual  for 
combination  with  his  fellows;  play  develops 
originality,  and  enriches  the  individual  with 
something  distinctive  which  he  may  contribute 
to  his  fellows  ;  work  without  play  degrades  man 
into  a  machine ;  play  without  work  makes  him 
the  toy  of  circumstance  and  impulse.  Surely  it 
is  only  necessary  to  grasp  these  familiar  antithe- 
ses to  recognize  that  harmonious  development 
demands  a  transition  from  one  to  the  other,  and 
it  is  only  necessary  to  comprehend  the  kinder- 
garten to  be  sure  that  it  is  the  transition  de- 
manded. 

With  recognition  of  the  transitional  character 
of  the  kindergarten  comes  insight  into  its  lim- 
its as  an  educational  appliance.  Its  function  is 
mediatorial,  and  it  bridges  the  chasm  between 
childhood,  which  is  predominantly  the  period  of 
self-development    through    self-expression,    and 


142  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

boyhood,  which,  is  predominantly  the  period  for 
that  study  of  the  external  and  manifold  through 
which  the  eyes  of  the  mind  are  slowly  opened  to 
the  vision  of  the  whole.  The  kindergarten  also 
mediates  the  family  and  the  school,  and  avoids 
the  too  abrupt  transition  from  the  nurture  of  the 
one  to  the  discipline  of  the  other.  When  we 
have  learned  to  make  the  transition  from  truths 
taught  by  authority  to  truth  inwardly  discerned, 
we  shall  have  done  for  youth  what  Froebel  has 
done  for  childhood,  and  our  system  of  education 
will  be  an  organic  unity,  wherein  "evolution  pro- 
ceeds by  numerous  successive  and  slight  modifi- 
cations,''  and  "  all  differences  in  kind  are  brought 
about  by  the  gradual  accumulation  of  differences 
in  degree.^^  * 

*  "  As  the  preceding  period  of  human  development,  the 
period  of  childhood  was  predominantly  that  of  life  for  the  sake 
merely  of  living,  for  making  the  external  internal,  so  the 
period  of  boyhood  is  predominantly  the  period  for  learning,  for 
making  the  external  internal. 

"  On  the  part  of  parents  and  educators  the  period  of  infancy 
demanded  chiefly  fostering  care.  During  the  succeeding  period 
of  childhood,  which  looks  upon  man  predominantly  as  a  unit 
and  would  lead  him  to  unity,  training  prevails.  The  period  of 
boyhood  leads  man  chiefly  to  the  consideration  of  particular  re- 
lationships and  individual  things,  in  order  to  enable  him  later 
on  to  discover  their  inner  unity.  The  inner  tendencies  and  re- 
lationships of  individual  things  and  conditions  are  sought  and 
established. 

**  Now,  the  consideration  and  treatment  of  individual  and  par- 


THE  MEANING  OF  PLAY.  143 

ticular  things,  as  such,  and  in  their  inner  bearings  and  relation- 
ships, constitute  the  essential  character  and  work  of  instruc- 
tion ;  therefore  boyhood  is  the  period  in  which  instruction 
predominates. 

"  This  instruction  is  conducted  not  so  much  in  accordance 
with  the  nature  of  man  as  in  accordance  with  the  fixed,  definite, 
clear  laws  that  lie  in  the  nature  of  things,  and  more  particularly 
the  laws  to  which  man  and  things  are  equally  subject.  It  is 
conducted  not  so  much  in  the  method  in  which  the  universal, 
eternal  law  finds  peculiar  expression  in  man  as  rather  in  the 
method  in  which  this  law  finds  peculiar  expression  in  each  ex- 
ternal thing,  or  simultaneous  expression  in  both  man  and  thing. 
It  is  conducted,  then,  in  accordance  with  fixed  and  definite  con- 
ditions lying  outside  the  human  being ;  and  this  implies  knowl- 
edge, insight,  a  conscious  and  comprehensive  survey  of  the  field. 

"  Such  a  process  constitutes  the  school  in  the  widest  sense  of 
the  word.  The  school,  then,  leads  man  to  a  knowledge  of  ex- 
ternal things,  and  of  their  nature  in  accordance  with  the  par- 
ticular and  general  laws  that  lie  in  them ;  by  the  presentation 
of  the  external,  the  individual,  the  particular,  it  leads  man  to  a 
knowledge  of  the  internal,  of  unity,  of  the  universal.  There- 
fore, on  entering  the  period  of  boyhood,  man  becomes  at  the 
same  time  a  schoolboy.  With  this  period  school  begins  for 
him,  be  it  in  the  home  or  out  of  it,  and  taught  by  the  father, 
the  members  of  the  family,  or  a  teacher.  School,  then,  means 
here  by  no  means  the  schoolroom,  nor  school-keeping,  but  the 
conscious  communication  of  knowledge,  for  a  definite  purpose 
and  in  definite  inner  connection." — Education  of  Man^  Hail- 
mannas  translation^  pp.  9^,  95, 

FroebePs  clearest  statement  of  the  ideal  of  creative  activity 
is  as  follows : 

"  God  creates  and  works  productively  in  uninterrupted  con- 
tinuity. Each  thought  of  God  is  a  work,  a  deed,  a  product ; 
and  each  thought  of  God  continues  to  work  with  creative  power 
in  endless  productive  activity  to  all  eternity.  Let  him  who 
has  not  seen  this  behold  Jesus  in  his  life  and  works ;  let  him 
behold  genuine  life  and  work  in  man ;  let  him,  if  he  truly 
lives,  behold  his  own  life  and  work. 

"  The  spirit  of  God  hovered  over  chaos,  and  moved  it ;  and 


144  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

stones  and  plants,  beasts  and  man,  took  form  and  separate  being 
and  life.  God  created  man  in  his  own  image ;  therefore,  man 
should  create  and  bring  forth  like  God.  His  spirit,  the  spirit  of 
man,  should  hover  over  the  shapeless,  and  move  it  that  it  may 
take  shape  and  form,  a  distinct  being  of  its  own.  This  is  the 
high  meaning,  the  deep  significance,  the  great  purpose  of  work 
and  industry,  of  productive  and  creative  activity.  We  become 
truly  godlike  in  diligence  and  industry,  in  working  and  doing, 
which  are  accompanied  by  the  clear  perception  or  even  by  the 
vaguest  feeling  that  thereby  we  represent  the  inner  in  the 
outer ;  that  we  give  body  to  spirit  and  form  to  thought ;  that 
we  render  visible  the  invisible;  that  we  impart  an  outward, 
finite,  transient  being  to  life  in  the  spirit.  Through  this 
godlikeness  we  rise  more  and  more  to  a  true  knowledge  of 
God,  to  insight  into  his  spirit;  and  thus,  inwardly  and  out- 
wardly, God  comes  even  nearer  to  us.  Therefore,  Jesus  so 
truly  says  in  this  connection  of  the  poor,  "  Theirs  is  the  king- 
dom of  heaven,"  if  they  could  but  see  and  know  it,  and  practice 
it  in  diligence  and  industry,  in  productive  and  creative  work. 
Of  children,  too,  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven;  for,  unchecked 
by  the  presumption  and  conceit  of  adults,  they  yield  themselves 
in  childlike  trust  and  cheerfulness  to  their  formative  and 
creative  instinct." 

Compare  with  this  statement  of  Froebel's  the  following  lines 
from  Browning : 

"  I  find  first 
Writ  down  for  very  A  B  C  of  fact, 
*  In  the  beginning  God  made  heaven  and  earth  ' ; 
From  which,  no  matter  with  what  lisp,  I  spell 
And  speak  you  out  a  consequence — that  man, 
Man,  as  befits  the  made,  the  inferior  thing — 
Purposed,  since  made,  to  grow,  not  make  in  turn, 
Yet  forced  to  try  and  make,  else  fail  to  grow — 
Formed  to  rise,  reach  at,  if  not  grasp  and  gain 
The  good  beyond  him— which  attempt  is  growth — 
Repeats  God's  process  in  man's  due  degree, 
Attaining  man's  proportionate  result — 
Creates,  no,  but  resuscitates,  perhaps. 
Inalienable,  the  arch-prerogative 


THE  MEANING  OF  PLAY.  145 

Which  turns  thought,  act — conceives,  expresses  too  ! 

No  less,  man,  bounded,  yearning  to  be  free, 

May  so  project  his  surplusage  of  soul 

In  search  of  body,  so  add  self  to  self 

By  owning  what  lay  ownerless  before — 

So  find,  so  fill  full,  so  appropriate  forms — 

That,  although  nothing  which  had  never  life 

Shall  get  life  from  him,  be,  not  having  been, 

Yet,  something  dead  may  get  to  live  again, 

Something  with  too  much  life  or  not  enough, 

Which,  either  way  imperfect,  ended  once : 

An  end  whereat  man's  impulse  intervenes. 

Makes  new  beginning,  starts  the  dead  alive. 

Completes  the  incomplete  and  saves  the  thing. 

Man's  breath  were  vain  to  light  a  virgin  wick — 

Half-burned-out,  all  but  quite-quenched  wicks  o'  the  lamp 

Stationed  for  temple-service  on  this  earth. 

These  indeed  let  him  breathe  on  and  relume  I "        J 


VL 

OLD   LADY  GAIRFOWL. 


"  And  there  Tom  saw  the  last  of  the  Gairfowl,  standing  up  on  the 
Allalonestone,  all  alone.  And  a  very  grand  old  lady  she  was,  full 
three  feet  high,  and  bolt  upright,  like  some  old  Highland  chieftainess. 
She  had  on  a  black  velvet  gown,  and  a  white  pinner  and  apron,  and  a 
very  high  bridge  to  her  nose  (which  is  a  sure  mark  of  high  breeding), 
and  a  large  pair  of  white  spectacles  on  it,  which  made  her  look  rather 
odd ;  but  it  was  the  ancient  fashion  of  her  house. 

"  And  instead  of  wings  she  had  two  little  feathery  arms,  with  which 
she  fanned  herself,  and  complained  of  the  dreadful  heat ;  and  she  kept 
on  crooning  an  old  song  to  herself,  which  she  learned  when  she  was  a 
little  baby-bird,  long  ago.  .  .  . 

"  Tom  came  up  to  her  very  humbly,  and  made  his  bow ;  and  the 
first  thing  she  said  was  : 

"  *  Have  you  wings  ?    Can  you  fly  ? ' 

"  '•  Oh,  dear,  no,  ma'am  ;  I  should  not  think  of  such  a  thing,'  said 
cunning  little  Tom. 

"  '  Then  I  shall  have  great  pleasure  in  talking  to  you,  my  dear.  It 
is  quite  refreshing  nowadays  to  see  anything  without  wings.  They 
must  all  have  wings,  forsooth,  now,  every  new  upstart  sort  of  bird, 
and  fly.  What  can  they  want  with  flying,  and  raising  themselves 
above  their  proper  station  in  life  ?  In  the  days  of  my  ancestors  no 
birds  ever  thought  of  having  wings,  and  did  very  well  without ;  and 
now  they  all  laugh  at  me  because  I  keep  to  the  good  old  fashion.' " — 
Water  Babies^  Charles  Kingsley. 


^ 


CHAPTER  VI. 

OLD   LADY  GAIRFOWL. 

The  origin  of  the  Mutter-  und  Koselieder* 
explains  its  object.  Twenty-four  years'  expe- 
rience as  a  practical  teacher  convinced  Froebel 
that  any  true  reform  in  education  must  begin 
with  its  foundations,  and  led,  in  1840,  to  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  first  kindergarten.  Expe- 
rience with  the  little  children  in  the  kinder- 
garten showed  him  that  conscious  aims  and 
methods  were  needed  in  the  nursery.  Hence  he 
crowned  his  educational  work  with  the  book  in 
which  he  seeks  to  reveal  to  mothers  the  meaning 
of  their  own  instinctive  play,  and  to  deepen  in 
them  the  consciousness  of  their  solemn  vocation. 

The  Mother-Play  is  a  collection  of  fifty-five 
songs.     Seven   introductory  songs   express   the 

*  It  seems  impossible  to  find  an  English  equivalent  for  the 
title  Mutter-  und  Koselieder.  Kosen,  an  untranslatable  word, 
suggests  the  tender  prattle  and  play  of  a  mother  with  her  in- 
fant. A  clew  to  the  meaning  Froebel  attached  to  this  word  is 
given  in  the  motto  to  the  Kicking  Song. 


150  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

feelings  of  a  mother  toward  her  infant  child, 
and  show  how  through  playful  incitement  she 
seeks  to  develop  its  activity ;  forty-nine  are  little 
games  which  she  may  play  with  him,  and  the 
concluding  song  outlines  the  results  presumably 
attained.  Many  of  the  songs  are  simply  adapta- 
tions of  rhymes  and  plays  which  Froebel  found 
in  actual  use  among  mothers ;  some  are  compo- 
sitions of  his  own,  suggested  by  incidents  of 
child  life  which  came  under  his  observation,  and 
a  few  were  written  by  his  wife  and  tested  by  her 
in  her  play  with  the  little  son  and  daughter  of 
Middendorff ,  The  music  of  the  songs  was  com- 
posed by  Froebers  disciple,  Robert  Kohl ;  while 
the  pictures  illustrating  them  are  the  work  of 
the  painter  Frederick  Unger,  who  had  been  in 
his  boyhood  a  pupil  of  Froebel's  and  was  deeply 
imbued  with  his  spirit.  Froebel  himself  wrote 
for  each  play  a  rhymed  motto  suggesting  and 
epitomizing  its  meaning,  and  a  prose  commen- 
tary giving  a  full  explanation  both  of  the  game 
and  its  accompanying  illustration.  The  conver- 
sations included  in  many  of  these  commentaries 
are  wonderful  pictures  of  an  ideal  intercourse 
between  mother  and  child. 

Froebel  gives  the  following  account  of  the 
genesis  and  development  of  the  Mutter-  und  Kose- 
lieder :  ^^As  I  was  one  day  walking  through  the 


OLD  LADY   GAIRFOWL.  151 

fields  there  came  toward  me  a  mother  carrying 
her  baby  on  her  arm.  ^  Call  the  chickens  ! '  she 
cried  to  the  child,  at  the  same  time  showing 
him  how  to  beckon  with  his  finger.  Deeply  im- 
pressed with  the  simple  act,  its  grounds  and  con- 
sequences, I  went  home  and  wrote  out  the  little 
game  Beckoning  the  Chickens.  Another  and 
another  followed,  and  soon  I  had  quite  a  collec- 
tion of  songs  and  games.  I  sent  them  as  I  wrote 
them  to  a  mother  whose  little  child  was  ill.  She 
assured  me  she  could  not  thank  me  enough  for 
the  delight  they  gave  him.  Thus,  gradually, 
through  a  constant  interchange  of  thought  and 
feeling  with  mothers,  grew  this  book.^^ 

The  care  with  which  Froebel  chose  his  plays, 
and  the  thoroughness  with  which  he  tested  them, 
are  shown  in  his  letters  to  his  friends  and  co- 
workers during  the  two  years  which  elapsed  be- 
tween the  publication  of  an  originally  small  col- 
lection of  Koseliedchen  and  the  appearance  of 
the  Mother-Play  in  its  expanded  and  permanent 
form.  Not  to  weary  the  reader  with  citations,  I 
limit  myself  to  the  following  extract  from  a  let- 
ter to  his  cousin,  Mrs.  Schmidt,  the  organizer  of 
the  second  kindergarten : 

"  To  help  the  child  to  use  his  own  body,  his 
limbs,  and  his  sensations,  and  to  assist  mothers 
and  those  who  take  the  place  of  mothers  to  the 


152  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

consciousness  of  their  duties  toward  the  children, 
and  to  a  lofty  conception  of  those  duties,  I  have 
carefully  preserved  several  little  songs  and  games 
as  they  have  occurred  to  me  in  the  course  of  my 
life,  and  have  given  them  the  name  of  Little 
Nursery  Songs  (Koseliedchen)  and  Games,  to  train 
the  body,  the  limbs,  and  the  senses,  for  quite 
little  children.  I  send  this  collection  to  you  for 
your  severe  criticism.  You,  best  of  all,  from  the 
rich  treasure  of  your  experience  as  a  mother,  can 
pronounce  whether  I  have  or  have  not  hit  the 
mark  at  which  I  have  aimed.  Strike  out  ruth- 
lessly all  that  seems  to  you  unsuitable.  And  if 
you  could  give  the  songs  to  mothers  who  have 
quite  little  children,  so  that  they  may  test  them 
thoroughly,  or  if  you  are  able  yourself  thus  to 
try  them,  I  should  be  above  all  things  de- 
lighted.^^* 

The  formal  defects  of  the  Mutter-  und  Kose- 
lieder  are  freely  admitted  by  its  most  enthusi- 
astic students.  Its  verse  is  halting,  its  pictures 
are  crude,  its  music  is  poor.  FroebeFs  mottoes 
and  commentaries  are  often  obscure.  His  lit- 
erary style  is  of  the  worst.  In  a  word,  the  book 
presents  imperfectly  a  pioneering  idea.  That  this 
idea  will  hereafter  clothe  itself  in  a  more  fitting 

*  FroebeFs  Letters  on  the  Kindergarten,  translated  by  Emily 
Michaelis  and  H.  Keatley  Moore,  p.  109. 


OLD  LADY  GAIRFOWL.  153 

garment,  we  believe,  but  until  such  a  garment 
has  been  woven  we  must  cling  to  the  idea  itself 
and  forget  its  wrappage. 

Critics  of  the  Mother-Play  have,  however,  not 
confined  themselves  to  pointing  out  its  defective 
form,  but  have  also  attacked  its  substance  and 
aim.  The  book  is  declared  to  be  a  dangerous  in- 
vasion of  that  realm  of  nurture  where  maternal 
instinct  should  have  full  sway.  The  mother^s 
heart,  it  is  urged,  teaches  clearly  what  she  should 
do  for  and  with  her  child,  and  the  attempt  to  ele- 
vate an  instinctive  into  a  conscious  procedure  is 
as  harmful  as  it  is  absurd.  This  objection  scarcely 
merits  a  serious  reply.  Instinct  has  not  prevent- 
ed the  Indian  mother  from  flattening  her  baby^s 
skull,  nor  the  Chinese  mother  from  cramping  and 
deforming  its  feet,  and  all  the  scornful  energy  of 
Rousseau  was  needed  to  teach  European  mothers 
the  evil  effects  of  long,  close,  swaddling  garments. 
Since  instinct  has  thus  proved  itself  incapable  of 
caring  for  the  body,  it  is  folly  to  talk  about  trust- 
ing to  it  the  development  of  heart  and  mind. 

Doubtless  there  are  women  who  have  a  genius 
for  motherhood,  and  who  do  by  nature  all  the 
things  required  in  the  law  of  education.  These 
are  the  artist  mothers,  but,  like  other  genuine 
artists,  they  are  few  in  number,  and  the  great 
majority  of  women  can  not  claim  to  be  more 


154:  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

than  mecliaiiics  of  the  mind.  It  was  from  artist 
mothers  that  Froebel  learned  his  secret.  It  was 
the  criticism  of  such  mothers  that  he  sought.  It 
is  by  such  mothers  that  he  will  be  most  appre- 
ciated. The  fear  that  spiritual  motherhood  will 
lose  any  of  its  power  or  charm  by  being  lifted 
into  the  realm  of  clearer  consciousness  is  about 
as  absurd  as  the  objection  of  old  Lady  Gairfowl 
to  the  "  upstart  birds  with  wings." 

A  more  serious  objection  to  the  Mother-Play 
is  that  it  lacks  sequence  and  arrangement.  This 
criticism,  if  valid,  indicates  not  only  a  vital  de- 
fect in  the  book,  but  a  singular  violation  on 
FroebeFs  part  of  one  of  his  own  fundamental 
principles.  No  student  of  his  writings  can  fail 
to  be  struck  by  his  recurrent  statements  of  the 
important  idea  of  continuity.  In  the  Education 
of  Man  he  urges  that  ^^  development  should  pro- 
ceed continuously  from  one  point,  and  that  this 
continuous  progress  should  be  recognized  and 
guarded."  In  the  Mother-Play  itself  he  insists 
that  "in  God's  world  just  because  it  is  God's 
world,  the  law  of  all  things  is  continuity."  His 
gifts  are  developed  one  from  another  on  a  prin- 
ciple of  inner  connection,  and  he  is  never  tired 
of  repeating  that  each  gift  fulfills  that  which 
precedes  and  foreshadows  that  which  follows 
it.    His  symbolism    arises,  as  has  been  already 


OLD  LADY  GAIRFOWL.  155 

pointed  out,  from  his  perception  of  the  connec- 
tion between  the  lower  and  higher  faculties  of 
mind,  and  the  law  of  their  unfolding.  His  whole 
career  as  an  educator  shows  that  he  not  only  pos- 
sessed the  idea  of  continuity,  but  was  possessed 
by  it.  Is  it  possible  that  in  his  last  and  greatest 
book  he  can  have  been  untrue  to  or  unmindful  of 
this  cardinal  principle  ?  * 

The  apparent  lack  of  sequence  in  the  Mother- 
Play  is,  I  think,  explained  by  the  fact  that  while 
each  game  is  typical  of  a  range  of  experience,  and 
may  therefore  be  played  by  children  of  different 
ages,  its  introduction  is  always  a  response  to 
some  manifestation  of  the  child,  and  the  order 
of  the  games  corresponds  to  an  ascending  series 
of  indicated  needs.     Thus  the  Falling,  falling 

*  "  Your  child  will  learn  to  toddle  before  he  learns  to  walk ; 
he  tries  to  stand  before  he  makes  an  effort  to  step  forward  ;  he 
tries  to  strengthen  and  develop  his  legs  and  his  whole  body  be- 
fore he  is  willing  to  stand  on  his  legs,  and  takes  pleasure  in  so 
doing.  If  you  make  your  child,  just  because  he  has  legs,  stand 
and  walk  all  at  once,  you  will  make  him  have  weak  bowlegs. 
Now,  mother,  in  the  development  of  the  body,  the  law  of  the 
intellect  is  also  expressed.  If  you  come  up  with  help  too  late, 
your  child  is  awkward  and  clumsy  in  body  and  mind ;  if  you 
come  too  soon — alas !  we  meet  with  only  too  many  people  who 
from  this  cause  wander  about  with  weak,  bowlegged  dispo- 
sitions, just  as  children  do  with  weak  bowlegs.  O  mother, 
mother !  and  all  you  who  take  her  place,  do  not  forget  this : 
rear  your  child  in  harmony  with  life's  interdependence,  and 
according  to  its  simple  laws." — Mother-Play,  Translation  by 
Frances  and  Emily  Lord,  p.  154* 
12 


156  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

play  is  the  mother's  answer  to  the  child's  dawn- 
ing sense  of  a  life  distinct  from  her  own,  while 
the  games  of  Hide  and  Seek  and  the  Cuckoo 
mark  a  much  more  advanced  consciousness  of 
personality,  and  a  deeper  longing  for  recogni- 
tion. The  Kicking  Game  is  a  response  to  the 
simple  instinct  of  movement ;  the  Weathervane, 
to  the  child's  first  attempts  at  imitation  and 
his  earliest  presentiment  of  cause ;  the  Tick- 
tack,  to  his  delight  in  listening  to  the  clock  and 
watching  the  swinging  pendulum  ;  Beckoning 
the  Chickens,  to  his  recognition  of  a  life  in  Na- 
ture, which  sympathizes  with  his  own ;  the  Bird's 
Nest,  to  his  waking  consciousness  of  mother 
love  ;  the  Flower  Basket,  to  the  desire  of  ex- 
pressing love ;  the  Carpenter,  to  an  anticipation 
of  the  meaning  of  home ;  the  Three  Songs  of  the 
Knights,  to  that  desire  of  approbation  which 
originally  expresses  simply  the  stirrings  of  social 
sympathy.  There  is  not  a  single  play  in  the 
Mutter-  und  Koselieder  whose  genesis  may  not 
be  traced  to  some  hint  of  need  given  by  the  child, 
and  these  hints  are  the  buds  which  show  where  a 
new  branch  or  twig  is  ready  to  burst  forth  upon 
the  tree  of  life.  On  the  other  hand,  just  as  the 
branch  having  budded  continues  to  grow,  so  each 
genuine  need  of  the  child  deepens  as  he  matures. 
Recognition  of  this  fact  leads  Froebel  to  suggest 


OLD  LADY  GAIRFOWL.  157 

in  his  commentaries  the  deeper  possibilities  latent 
in  each  of  his  little  games,  and  its  consequent 
adaptability  to  children  of  different  ages.  In  like 
manner  the  pictures  refer  sometimes  to  the  ear- 
lier, sometimes  to  the  later,  often  to  both  stages 
in  the  development  of  the  play  which  they  illus- 
trate. 

That  the  order  of  the  songs  in  the  Mother- 
Play  is  not  an  accidental  one  is  shown,  moreover, 
by  the  fact  that  they  fall  into  four  well-marked 
divisions,  to  each  of  which  Froebel  calls  atten- 
tion in  his  commentaries.  The  first  division  inX 
eludes  all  the  games  before  the  Target;*  the 
second,  those  intervening  between  the  Target 
and  the  Light-Songs ;  the  third,  the  Light-Songs 
themselves,  and  the  plays  between  these  and  the 
Knights ;  the  fourth,  all  the  remaining  songs  in\ 
the  book. 

The  games  included  in  the  first  division  relate 
in  general  to  the  elementary  experiences  of  move- 
ment, change,  and  time.  The  only  relationship 
thrown  into  relief  is  that  between  mother  and 
child,  though  the  germs  of  sympathy  with  the 
life  of  nature  are  fostered  by  the  plays  of  the 
Chickens  and  Pigeons.  The  only  sensations  con- 
sciously discriminated  are  those  falling  within  the 

*  I  make  one  change  in  FroebeFs  arrangement,  by  placing 
the  Grass-Mowing  in  the  second  group. 


158  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

spheres  of  taste  and  smell.  With  the  game  of  the 
Target,  as  Froebel  points  out,  we  enter  upon  a  new 
stage  of  development — a  stage  characterized,  as 
he  further  informs  us,  by  the  desire  of  the  child 
to  classify  objects  according  to  their  number, 
form,  and  size.  Number  makes  it  possible  to 
grasp  together  the  separate  elements  of  a  spatial 
whole,  and  to  express  the  law  of  proportion ;  to 
recognize  as  a  synthetic  unity  the  successive 
stages  of  a  developing  process,  and  to  mark 
off  and  accentuate  rhythmic  intervals  of  time. 
Hence  in  this  group  of  games  Froebel  calls  at- 
tention to  the  family  as  a  membered  unity,  to 
the  series  of  acts  involved  in  a  constructive  pro- 
cess, and  to  the  laws  of  rhythm  and  proportion 
both  in  their  physical  and  spiritual  applications. 
This  series  ends  with  The  Children  on  the  Tower 
— a  review  game,  wherein  nearly  all  the  preced- 
ing plays  are  brought  together,  and  through 
which  a  hint  is  given  the  child  that  his  own  life 
is  a  process  of  becoming,  and  that  in  order  to 
know  what  is,  one  must  learn  something  of  how 
it  came  to  be. 

Perhaps  the  most  critical  moment  of  the 
child's  life  is  that  in  which  he  begins  to  distin- 
guish between  the  outside  and  inside  of  things. 
The  signs  of  this  awakening  consciousness  are 
many  and   unmistakable.      The  ticking  of  the 


OLD  LADY  GAIRFOWL.  159 

watch  no  longer  satisfies ;  papa  must  open  it 
and  show  its  moving  wheels.  The  doll  is  broken, 
to  find  out  what  makes  her  eyes  roll ;  the  kaleido- 
scope shattered,  to  discover  the  secret  of  its  shin- 
ing stars.  When  the  mother  speaks,  her  face  is 
scanned  to  see  if  she  means  what  she  says  ;  more- 
over, what  she  says  and  does  to-day  is  compared 
with  the  words  and  actions  of  yesterday.  The 
child  has  begun  to  discriminate  between  soul  and 
body,  reality  and  appearance,  unity  and  mani- 
foldness.  He  is  one,  though  his  feelings  and 
actions  are  many;  this  unity  in  him  is  active 
and  invisible — the  hidden  essence  of  his  varying 
manifestations.  Such  an  invisible  soul  there 
must  be  in  all  things.  What  is  its  nature  ?  How 
is  it  related  to  him,  and  he  to  it  ? 

The  reader  will  understand  that  in  attempt- 
ing to  describe  this  nascent  consciousness  I  have 
necessarily  given  it  a  definiteness  it  does  not  in 
reality  possess.  It  is  impossible  to  picture  in 
words  the  faint  dawning  of  the  inner  light,  but 
a  certain  mark  of  its  approach  is  the  child^s 
ability  to  use  the  pronoun  I.  For  the  use  of 
this  pronoun,  as  Rosmini  has  pointed  out,  pre- 
supposes, first,  that  he  who  uses  it  has  the  ab- 
stract (or  general)  conception  of  the  power  of 
speaking ;  second,  that  he  refers  the  act  of  speak- 
ing to  a  speaking  subject ;  third,  that  he  under- 


160  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

stands  that  the  I  indicates  precisely  this  speaking 
subject.*  In  a  word,  the  ability  to  say  I  implies 
that  the  universal  and  the  particular  are  at  once 
distinguished  and  identified. f 

To  this  dawning  consciousness  of  the  relation 
between  universal  and  particular,  Froebel  re- 
sponds in  the  ten  songs  which  have  for  their 
theme  the  varied  aspects  of  light.  They  show 
light  as  the  revealer  both  of  individuality  and 
relativity ;  light  as  a  self -diffusive  and  creative 
energy ;  light  and  darkness  as  the  physical  cor- 
respondences of  good  and  evil ;  light  and  the  eye 

♦  Rosminrs  Method  in  Education,  p.  232. 

f  "  /—God  excepted,  who  is  at  once  the  great  original  I  and 
Thou — is  the  noblest  as  well  as  the  most  incomprehensible  thing 
which  language  expresses  or  which  we  contemplate.  It  is  these 
all  at  once,  as  the  whole  realm  of  truth  and  conscience,  which 
without  I  is  nothing." — Jean  Paul,  Levana,  Bohn's  translation^ 
p.  lU. 

"  Never  shall  I  forget  the  inner  sensation,  hitherto  untold  to 
any,  when  I  was  present  at  the  birth  of  my  self-consciousness,  of 
which  I  can  specify  both  time  and  place.  One  morning,  when 
still  quite  a  young  child,  I  was  standing  under  the  doorway  and 
looking  toward  the  wood-stack  on  the  left,  when  suddenly  the 
internal  vision,'  I  am  an  ego^  passed  before  me  like  a  lightning- 
flash  from  heaven,  and  has  remained  with  me  shining  brightly 
ever  since ;  my  ego  had  seen  itself  then  for  the  first  time  and 
forever.  Deceptions  of  the  memory  are  here  hardly  conceivable, 
since  no  story  related  to  me  could  mingle  its  additions  with  an 
occurrence  which  took  place  in  the  shrouded  holy  of  holies  of 
a  human  being,  and  whose  strangeness  alone  has  given  perma- 
nence to  such  every-day  circumstances  as  those  which  accom- 
panied it." — Levana,  Bohn^s  translation,  p.  S5, 


OLD  LADY  GAIRFOWL.  161 

as  symbolizing  truth  and  the  mind ;  the  pleas- 
ures of  sight  as  contrasted  with  the  grosser 
pleasures  of  touch,  and  adumbrating  the  truth 
that  the  purest  joys  of  life  are  apart  from  mate- 
rial possession.  Above  all,  however,  they  prophe- 
sy the  transition  from  physical  to  spiritual  unity, 
and  kindle  in  the  imagination  the  tiny  spark  of 
presentiment  which  shall  one  day  blaze  into  rec- 
ognition of  the  truth  that  the  universal  is  always 
the  creator  of  the  particular. 

The  Light-Songs  are  followed  by  eight  games 
which  deal  with  practical  activities.*  In  the 
commentary  on  The  Charcoal  Burner,  which  is 
the  first  of  this  series,  Froebel  makes  the  follow- 
ing suggestive  remark :  "  We  have  recognized 
the  eye  as  the  medium  between  man's  inner 
being  and  the  spiritual  world.  In  like  manner 
the  hand  is  a  special  medium  between  the  in- 
ner life  and  the  surrounding  material  world.'' 
Through  its  use  the  child  learns  how  much  there 
is  to  be  done  immediately  around  him.  The 
games  thus  introduced  picture  the  work  of  the 
Charcoal  Burner,  the  Carpenter,  Joiner,  and 
Wheelwright,  and  call  attention  to  the  pleasure 
of  developing  plant  life  and  the  duty  of  protect- 

*  I  follow  Wicliard  Lange.  Seidel  includes  in  this  division 
the  Song  of  Smell,  which,  in  my  judgment,  should  be  included 
in  the  first  group. 


162  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

ing  domestic  animals.  The  object  of  these  games 
is  to  deepen  the  consciousness  of  social  dependence 
and  kindle  the  sense  of  social  obligation.  They 
relate  to  the  preceding  songs,  as  the  hand  to  the 
eye,  as  doing  to  seeing,  or,  stated  more  abstractly, 
as  the  practice  of  duty  to  the  vision  of  truth. 

Up  to  this  point  in  the  Mutter-  und  Koselieder 
there  has  been  no  direct  attempt  to  work  upon 
the  moral  sense.  The  relationships  of  the  child 
to  nature,  to  man,  and  to  God  have  been  pictured, 
and  the  duties  arising  out  of  these  relationships 
have  been  incidentally  suggested.  There  has, 
however,  been  no  hint  of  the  compulsory  nature 
of  these  duties.  In  the  three  songs  of  the 
Knights,  and  the  games  which  follow  them,  we 
advance,  so  Froebel  tells  us,  to  a  new  stage  of 
development.  "  What  has  hitherto  been  done  for 
the  formation  of  the  child's  disposition  and  will 
has  been  accidental — as  it  were,  a  thing  aside; 
what  is  now  done  is  with  clear  intention  and  de- 
liberate aim.'^  The  moral  imperative  is  revealed. 
The  words  ought  and  must  acquire  definite  mean- 
ing ;  and  conscience,  begotten  of  imagination,  be- 
gins to  utter  her  commands,  her  warnings,  and 
her  threats.*    With  this  attempt  to  foster  self- 

*  See,  in  Memoir  of  Bronson  Alcott,  by  F.  B.  Sanborn  and 
W.  T.  Harris,  pages  654-656,  some  very  suggestive  remarks  by 
Dr.  Harris  on  the  process  through  which  imagination  generates 
the  conscience. 


OLD  LADY  GAIRFOWL.  163 

directing  activity  the  Mother-Play  comes  to  an 
end. 

It  has  seemed  important  to  consider  in  some 
detail  the  objections  urged  against  the  Mother- 
Play,  because  adverse  criticism  has  tended  to  di- 
minish the  practical  influence  of  the  book,  and 
hence  to  prevent  the  realization  of  Froebers 
own  most  cherished  hopes.  "It  would  be  an 
everlasting  loss,''  said  the  thoughtful  Diester- 
weg,  "if  the  treasures  which  lie 'in  Friedrich 
Froebel  were  allowed  to  perish.  He  is  a  jewel, 
a  pearl  of  price."  *  These  treasures  are  laid  up 
in  the  Mother-Play.  Froebel  himself  always 
made  this  book  the  basis  of  his  lectures  to  moth- 
ers and  kindergartners,  and  never  ceased  to  refer 
to  it  as  the  point  of  departure  for  a  natural 
system  of  education.  It  has  been  recognized  by 
most  of  his  leading  disciples  as  the  high-water 
mark  of  his  genius,  and  the  richest  outcome  of 
his  twenty-seven  years  of  experience  as  an  edu- 
cator. It  should  be  the  guide  of  every  mother 
who  aspires  to  do  what  is  best  for  her  children. 
It  should  be  the  favorite  picture  and  song  book 
in  every  nursery.  It  should  be  the  beacon  light 
by  which  each  kindergartner  directs  her  course. 
It  should  be  the  beating  heart  of  every  kinder- 

*  Cited  in  the  English  translation  of  Froebel's  Letters,  Emily 
Michaelis  and  H.  Keatley  Moore. 


164  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

garten.  It  should  be  the  center  around  which 
revolve  all  the  concentric  circles  of  kindergarten 
activity.  It  should  be  the  most  important  study 
in  every  kindergarten  normal  class.  Only  by 
such  varied  use  and  application  will  its  secret  be 
learned,  and  the  world  come  to  understand  the 
full  meaning  of  the  cry  which  fifty  years  ago 
rang  out  from  the  depths  of  the  Thuringian 
forest : 

^^  Come,  let  us  live  with  our  children/^ 


VII. 
PATTERN  EXPERIENCES. 


"  The  sun  is  fixed, 
And  the  infinite  magnificence  of  heaven 
Fixed,  within  reach  of  every  human  eye  ; 
The  sleepless  ocean  murmurs  for  all  ears  ; 
The  vernal  field  infuses  fresh  delight 
Into  all  hearts.    Throughout  the  world  of  sense, 
Even  as  an  object  is  sublime  or  fair. 
That  object  is  laid  open  to  the  view 
Without  reserve  or  veil ;  and  as  a  power 
Is  salutary,  or  an  influence  sweet, 
Are  each  and  all  enabled  to  perceive 
That  power,  that  influence,  by  impartial  law. 
Gifts  nobler  are  vouchsafed  alike  to  all ; 
Reason  and,  with  that  reason,  smiles  and  tears ; 
Imagination,  freedom  of  the  will ; 
Conscience  to  guide  and  check  ;  and  death  to  be 
Foretasted,  immortality  conceived 
By  all — a  blissful  immortality, 
To  them  whose  holiness  on  earth  shall  make 
The  spirit  capable  of  heaven,  assured. 
Strange,  then,  nor  less  than  monstrous  might  be  deemed 
The  failure,  if  the  Almighty,  to  this  point 
Liberal  and  undistinguishing,  should  hide 
The  excellence  of  moral  qualities 
From  common  understanding  ;  leaving  truth 
And  virtue  difficult,  abstruse,  and  dark  ; 
Hard  to  be  won,  and  only  by  a  few  ; 
Strange,  should  he  deal  herein  with  nice  respects, 
And  frustrate  all  the  rest !    Believe  it  not : 
The  primal  duties  shine  aloft,  like  stars  ; 
The  charities  that  soothe,  and  heal,  and  bless, 
Are  scattered  at  the  feet  of  man,  like  flowers. 
The  generous  inclination,  the  just  rule. 
Kind  wishes,  and  good  actions  and  pure  thoughts. 
No  mystery  is  here  !    Here  is  no  boon 
For  high,  yet  not  for  low ;  for  proudly  graced. 
Yet  not  for  meek  of  heart.    The  smoke  ascends 
To  heaven  as  lightly  from  the  cottage-hearth 
As  from  the  haughtiest  palace.    He  whose  soul 
Ponders  this  true  equality,  may  walk 
The  fields  of  earth  with  gratitude  and  hope." 

The  Excursion^  Booh  IXy  Wordsworth. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

PATTERN  EXPERIENCES. 

Two  distinct  and  even  antagonistic  views  with, 
regard  to  the  purpose  of  the  kindergarten  games 
seem  to  be  more  or  less  clearly  shaping  themselves 
in  the  consciousness  of  practical  kindergartners, 
and  to  be  finding  expression  in  the  works  of 
FroebePs  interpreters  and  critics.  Of  these  con- 
flicting views  one  holds  that  the  seed-thought  of 
the  Mother-Play  is  the  dramatic  reproduction  of 
each  child's  daily  experiences,  and  that  therefore 
the  plays  suggested  by  Froebel  must  be  changed 
whenever  the  circumstances  and  surroundings  of 
the  child  are  changed ;  the  other  insists  that  the 
procreant  idea  of  FroebeFs  games  is  that  of  ac- 
centuating and  interpreting  pattern  experiences, 
and  that  the  actual  supply  of  such  experiences 
is  an  essential  part  of  the  duty  of  mothers  and 
kindergartners. 

The  theory  of  adaptive  modification  has  been 
so  clearly  stated  by  Mr.  Courthope  Bowen  in  his 
helpful  book,  Froebel  and  Education  by  Self- 


16a     '  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

Activity/tliat  I  can  not  do  better  than  quote  his 
words :' 

;^*The  Mutter-  und  Koselieder  was  collected 
and  composed  and  organized  some  fifty  years 
ago  for  little  German  children — mainly  those 
who  were  surrounded  with  country  sights  and 
sounds  and  occupations.  A  very  small  amount 
of  consideration  will  show  that  for  little  English 
or  American  children — especially  when  they  live 
in  cities — something  different  will  be  required  if 
a  similar  effect  is  to  be  produced.  We  shall 
require  what  is  English  or  American,  or  what 
has  become  such.  All  of  physical  nature,  of 
the  country,  that  we  can  actually  bring  into  the 
cities,  that  we  can  place  and  keep  within  the 
sight  and  touch  of  children,  we  should  of  course 
use  freely.  For  the  rest,  we  must  draw  upon  the 
children's  homes,  and  upon  the  actual  life  by 
which  they  are  surrounded.  To  do  otherwise  is 
to  break  at  once  with  Froebel.  For  these  little 
city  children  we  should  not  tell  of  The  Fish  in 
the  Brook,  but  of  The  Sparrow  in  the  Street ;  not 
of  The  Nest  with  its  Birdlings,  but  of  The  Cat 
and  her  Kittens ;  not  of  The  Charcoal  Burner, 
but  of  The  Costermonger,  The  Cabman,  The 
Newspaper  Boy,  The  Watercress  Woman ;  not  of 
The  Wolf  and  the  Boar,  but  of  The  Dog ;  and  even 
instead  of  playing  at  Mowing  the  Grass,  it  would 


|>;^^ 


PATTERN  EXPERIENCES. 

be  better  for  tbese  little  city  children  ^^C^^k^My 
sweeping  the  room/' 

No  disciple  of  Froebel  will  deny  thaf" 
actual  experience  of  the  child  should  furnish 
the  incitement  for  his  plays,  and  Mr.  Bowen 
merits  our  gratitude  for  his  emphatic  statement 
of  this  cardinal  point.  In  my  judgment,  how- 
ever, he  errs  in  insisting  that  the  kindergarten 
games  should  reproduce  only  literal  and  custom- 
ary experiences,  and  in  his  suggestion  that  Ger- 
man and  English  children,  city  children  and 
country  children,  rich  children  and  poor  children, 
should  have  wholly  different  plays.  In  oppo- 
sition to  this  view,  I  hold  that  Froebel's  games 
dramatize  ideal  experiences  which  all  children 
may  and  ought  to  have,  and  that  consequently 
they  should  be  played  by  children  of  all  nations 
and  all  conditions  in  life.  To  these  universal 
plays  may  be  added  those  which  throw  into  relief 
the  salient  experiences  of  children  in  particular 
localities,  and,  as  I  have  already  suggested,  each 
mother  may  dramatize  for  her  own  child  those 
events  of  his  life  whose  influence  she  wishes  to 
deepen  and  perpetuate.* 

*  I  do  not  mean  to  imply  that  there  should  be  a  rigid  adher- 
ence to  the  words,  music,  or  gestures  suggested  by  Froebel,  but 
only  that  we  should  in  general  conform  to  the  subjects  he  has 
indicated.  My  difference  from  Mr.  Bowen  will  perhaps  be  best 
shown  by  considering  the  substitutes  he  proposes  for  some  of 


170  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

The  theory  that  the  kindergarten  games  should 
reproduce  only  literal  and  habitual  experiences 
involves  those  who  try  to  carry  it  out  in  practice 
in  endless  difficulties.    Will  any  one  contend  that 

FroebeFs  games^  I  readily  admit  that  if  the  child  had  never 
seen  a  fish  it  might  be  well  to  substitute  for  the  game  of  the 
fishes  that  of  the  flying  bird,  for  the  idea  which  this  game  em- 
bodies is  simply  that  of  free  activity  in  a  pure  element,  and 
Froebel  himself  in  his  commentary  illustrates  both  by  birds 
and  fishes.  I  also  agree  with  Mr.  Bowen,  that  if  it  were  impos- 
sible to  take  the  child  into  the  country  or  to  show  him  different 
kinds  of  birds'  nests,  it  might  be  well  to  substitute  The  Cat  and 
her  Kittens  for  The  Bird  and  her  Nestlings,  though  in  the  case 
of  birds  we  have  far  more  tender  and  more  varied  illustrations 
of  mother  love  and  care.  I  should,  however,  not  admit  that  the 
dog  could  be  substituted  for  the  wolf,  since  the  idea  in  the 
game  of  the  woJf  is  the  destruction  of  savage  and  the  protec- 
tion of  domestic  animals.  Neither  should  I  concede  that  such 
a  play  as  Sweeping  the  Room  could  be  compared  with  that  of 
Mowing  Grrass,  for  the  one  represents  a  menial  and  unrelated 
activity,  while  the  other  dramatizes  a  sequence  of  acts  and  stirs 
the  sense  of  social  dependence. 

That  Froebel  intended  in  his  plays  to  embody  what  I  have 
called  typical  or  pattern  experiences  is  evident  from  many  pas- 
sages in  his  writings.  The  following  extract  from  a  letter  to 
Mrs.  Schmidt  will  perhaps  be  sufficient  to  convince  the  reader 
that  in  the  pursuance  of  this  aim  he  was  guided  not  by  a  blind 
impulse  but  by  a  clear  insight : 

"  Much-esteemed  and  Dear  Cousin  :  At  last  I  am  able  to 
reply  to  your  kind  letter  of  the  7th  inst.  Permit  me  to  an- 
swer you  clause  by  clause.  I.  '  Often  and  often,'  so  you  say, 
*  passages  which  I  read  in  the  Sunday  Journal  evoke  from  the 
depths  of  my  inner  consciousness  like  thoughts  which  I  have 
originated  for  myself,  and  like  experiences  which  I  have  gone 
through  in  my  own  life,  until  I  grow  quite  astonished  and 
puzzled.'    What  you  thus  confide  to  me  relates  to  one  part  of 


PATTERN  EXPERIENCES.  171 

for  the  cliildren  in  orphan  asylums  we  should 
omit  all  family  plays  ?  In  a  kindergarten  for  the 
blind  must  we  weed  out  such  plays  as  the  Flying 
Bird  and  the  Swift-darting  Fish ;  or  admit  that 

the  sweetest,  best,  and  purest  fruit  of  my  life ;  one  part,  namely, 
of  what  I  mean  to  do,  or  have  already  accomplished  (through 
ray  children's  games  and  occupations),  toward  clearing  a  path- 
way through  the  tangles  of  human  life.  I  am  endeavoring  to 
bring  man,  through  the  knowledge  of  his  own  inner  feelings 
and  the  experiences  of  his  own  life,  to  a  forefeeling,  a  percep- 
tion, and  finally  a  clear  consciousness,  of  this  great  fact — that 
for  all  the  important  needs  of  life,  and  for  the  deepest  concep- 
tions that  govern  life,  there  exist  universally  applicable  life 
experiences  and  examples  which  are  found  to  be  repeated  in 
the  case  of  every  man  who  examines  the  development  of  his 
own  career  with  careful  scrutiny  and  endeavors  to  bring  him- 
self to  a  consciousness  of  its  meaning." — FroeheVs  Letters  Oil 
the  Kindergarten,  translated  by  Emily  Michaelis  and  II, 
Keatley  3Ioore,  p.  96, 

It  is  also  evident,  both  from  certain  of  Froebel's  games  and 
from  his  own  definite  statements,  that  while  he  intended  his 
plays  to  be  in  general  connected  with  life  experiences,  he  by  no 
means  rigidly  excluded  the  representation  of  unfamiliar  objects 
or  activities,  but  held  that  occasionally  games  and  pictures 
might  anticipate  experience.  For  example,  most  of  the  chil- 
dren for  whom  he  wrote  had  probably  never  seen  living  wolves. 
The  following  passage  from  the  Pedagogics  of  the  Kindergarten 
leaves  no  doubt  as  to  his  own  opinion  on  this  point : 

"  The  second  remark  is,  that  objects  are  here  brought  before 
the  child  which  indeed  the  playing  adult  has  seen,  but  which  as 
yet  the  playing  child  has  not  seen  at  all.  Though  this  is  not  to 
be  anxiously  avoided,  as  little  is  it  to  be  thoughtlessly  carried 
too  far;  kept  within  right  limits,  it  justifies  itself  to  any  simple 
and  straightforward  mind.  The  life  and  the  course  of  develop- 
ment of  the  human  being  and  the  laws  of  this  development 
make  this  procedure  recurrent  with  the  most  developed  man ; 
13 


172  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

the  representation  of  these  activities  may  waken 
in  sightless  children  a  faint  reflection  of  the  joy 
with  which  seeing  children  watch  the  actual  fish 
and  bird  ?    For  the  children  of  the  slums  must 

for  as  man  is  a  being  destined  to  attain  increasing  conscious- 
ness, so  is  he  also  to  become  and  be  a  judging  and  reasoning 
being.  Besides,  man  has  a  peculiar  presaging  power  of  imagi- 
nation, as  indeed  also,  what  must  never  be  forgotten,  but  always 
kept  in  view  as  important  and  guiding — the  newborn  child  is 
not  subsequently  a  man,  but  the  man  already  appears,  and  in- 
deed is  in  the  child  with  all  his  qualities  and  the  unity  of  his 
nature. 

"Objects  not  yet  seen  in  life  by  the  child  may  therefore 
be  introduced  to  him  through  word  and  representation,  but 
with  the  following  restriction :  The  introduction  (as,  for  exam- 
ple, in  the  preceding  pages  that  of  the  squirrel)  must  not  take 
place  until  the  child,  through  frequent  representation  of  the 
activity  of  a  familiar  object,  has  identified  and  classified  such 
object  through  its  activity.  To  illustrate :  The  child  has  often 
seen  and  may  continue  to  see  a  kitten ;  he  represents  with  his 
ball  the  act  of  springing,  and  identifies  the  kitten  as  a  springing 
animal.  He  also  recognizes  the  kitten  in  the  springing  ball. 
Subsequently  he  observes  the  climbing  of  the  kitten,  and  repre- 
sents this  with  the  ball.  He  has  now  identified  the  kitten,  as  a 
living  thing  that  springs  and  climbs.  When,  therefore,  he  is 
told  that  the  squirrel  climbs,  he  quickly  comes  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  squirrel  is  a  living  thing  that  climbs.  This  is 
enough  to  excite  his  attention  and  justify  his  representation 
of  the  squirrel's  activity.  When  later  he  sees  a  squirrel  and  it 
is  named  to  him,  he  fixes  his  eyes  upon  it  sharply,  perhaps 
without  even  hearing  its  name,  recognizes  it  through  its  climb- 
ing and  other  possible  connections  with  known  animals.  This 
is  a  sufficient  justification  for  the  childlike  and  motherly  pro- 
cedure we  have  been  considering." — Pedagogics  of  the  Kinder- 
garten, translated  by  Josephine  Jarvis  (vol.  xxvii,  International 
Education  Series), 


PATTERN  EXPERIENCES.  173 

we  invent  games  reproducing  their  daily  sur- 
roundings; or  try  by  excursions  into  the  coun- 
try, and  by  the  representation  of  typical  scenes 
from  the  world  of  nature  and  the  world  of  man, 
to  withdraw  their  minds  from  the  dwarfing  and 
distorting  conditions  of  their  own  lives  ? 

A  cursory  glance  at  the  games  contained  in 
the  Mother-Play  will  show  that  in  general  they 
embody  experiences  which  it  is  easy  to  sup- 
ply to  children  the  world  over.  An  occasional 
morning  spent  in  the  country  will  furnish  in- 
citement for  all  the  nature  plays.  For  the 
family,  state,  and  church  plays  the  ordinary  ex- 
periences of  child-life  give  sufficient  occasion. 
Visits  to  the  farmer,  miller,  baker,  carpenter, 
joiner,  and  wheelwright  will  supply  the  point  of 
departure  for  the  labor  plays.  The  recurrent 
reproduction  of  these  typical  experiences  will 
cause  them  to  stand  out  clearly  and  strongly  in 
the  child's  consciousness  and  give  them  a  deter- 
mining power  upon  his  character,  while  con- 
versely evil  and  painful  experiences,  if  not  dwelt 
upon  by  the  imagination,  tend  gradually  to  retire 
into  the  background  of  the  mind.  *'  Without  ob- 
livion there  is  no  remembrance  possible/*  Is  it 
not  the  capital  power  of  thought  that  it  can 
single  out  of  the  complex  of  life  illuminating 
and   educative   experiences,  and    refuse  its  at- 


174  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

tention  to  what  is  arbitrary,  unessential,  or  de- 
praving ? 

It  is  important  in  this  connection  to  remember 
that  in  FroebeFs  view  one  great  duty  of  mothers 
and  kindergartners  is  to  introduce  children  to  the 
society  of  nature.  "  Out-of-door  life/'  he  declares 
in  the  Education  of  Man,  *^is  particularly  desir- 
able for  the  young ;  it  develops,  strengthens,  ele- 
vates, and  ennobles.  It  imparts  life  and  a  higher 
significance  to  all  things.  For  this  reason  short 
excursions  and  walks  are  excellent  educational 
means,  and  to  be  highly  esteemed  even  in  the 
beginning  of  boy  and  school  life.''  *  And  again : 
"Man,  particularly  in  boyhood,  should  become 
intimate  with  Nature,  not  so  much  with  refer- 
ence to  the  details  and  the  outer  forms  of  her 
phenomena,  as  with  reference  to  the  Spirit  of 
God  that  lives  in  her  and  rules  over  her.  Indeed, 
the  boy  feels  this  deeply  and  demands  it ;  for  this 
reason,  where  love  of  nature  is  still  unimpaired, 
nothing  perhaps  unites  teachers  and  pupils  so 
intimately  as  the  thoughtful  study  of  nature  and 
of  the  objects  of  nature. 

"  Parents  and  teachers  should  remember  this, 
and  the  latter  should,  at  least  once  a  week,  take 
a  walk  with  each  class — not  driving  them  out 
like  a  flock  of  sheep,  nor  leading  them  out  like 

*  Education  of  Man,  Ilailmann's  translation,  p.  309. 


PATTERN  EXPERIENCES.  175 

a  company  of  soldiers,  but  going  with  them  as  a 
father  with  his  sons  or  a  brother  with  his  broth- 
ers, and  acquainting  them  more  fully  with  what- 
ever the  season  or  Nature  offers  them."  * 

The  nature  plays  in  our  kindergartens  lose 
much  of  their  spirit  and  value  because  we  fail 
to  connect  them  with  the  objects,  actions,  and 
events  which  it  is  their  function  to  interpret. 
Emerson  chides  us  for  "filling  the  hands  and 
nurseries  of  our  children  with  all  manner  of 
dolls,  drums,  and  horses,  and  withdrawing  their 
eyes  from  the  plain  face  and  sufficing  objects 
of  nature — the  sun  and  moon,  the  animals,  the 
water,  and  stones  which  should  be  their  toys." 
Let  us  not  continue  to  deserve  this  reproach, 
but  begin  at  once  to  bless  the  child  with  the 
sweet  influences  of  earth  and  air  and  sky.  Grant 
him  the  joy  of  roaming  the  fields,  of  finding  the 
early  violet,  of  weaving  daisy  chains  and  lark- 
spur wreaths,  of  making  burdock  baskets  and 
fir-twig  furniture,  and  acorn  cups  and  thistle 
balls.  Show  him  how  to  plant  seed,  and  amaze 
his  unaccustomed  soul  with  the  miracle  of 
growth.  Let  him  know  the  thrill  of  awe  which 
accompanies  the  peep  into  a  bird's  nest.  Teach 
him  to  observe  the  strange  metamorphoses  of 
insects.    Give  him  occasion  to  study  the  animals 

*  Education  of  Man,  p.  163. 


176  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

in  their  native  haunts,  and  incite  him  to  distin- 
guish animals  of  the  field  and  the  woods,  aquatic, 
amphibious,  and  aerial  animals.  Explain  to  him 
how  the  abode  and  food  of  animals  affect  their 
color  and  form,  and  open  his  eyes  to  that  won- 
derful mimicry  through  which  birds  and  insects 
protect  themselves  and  their  young.  Make  him 
notice  how  some  plants  love  to  bask  in  the  sun- 
shine, others  to  hide  in  the  shade ;  how  some 
need  a  dry,  sandy  soil,  some  flourish  in  the 
marsh,  while  still  others  are  parasites  and  de- 
pend both  for  support  and  food  upon  their 
stronger  neighbors.  Stir  his  imagination  with 
the  poetry  of  forest  life,  and  let  him  experience 
that  sense  of  mystery  and  awe  which  steals  over 
the  soul  of  the  solitary  wanderer  in  the  depths  of 
the  woods.  Make  him  know  the  great  god  Pan. 
As  he  grows  older,  let  him  climb  high  hills  and 
see  as  a  whole  the  landscape  which  he  has  hith- 
erto known  only  in  fragments.  Let  him  follow 
the  windings  of  a  brook,  and  be  stirred  by  its 
suggestion  of  whence  and  whither.  Satisfy  the 
mystic  longing  which  impels  him  to  seek  his 
own  reflection  in  pond  and  stream,  and  makes 
him  hearken  with  such  delight  to  the  echoes  of 
his  voice  ringing  from  rocks  and  woods.  Let 
him  watch  the  shifting  figures  of  the  clouds; 
gaze  into  fathomless  depths  of  blue  sky;  know 


PATTERN  EXPERIENCES.  177 

the  upward  leap  of  heart  which  comes  from  the 
sight  of  the  rainbow ;  behold  the  sunrise  and  the 
sunset ;  count  the  stars  as  they  shine  forth  one 
by  one  out  of  the  gathering  dark,  and  feel  those 
rising  tides  of  the  spirit  which  obey  the  attrac- 
tion of  the  moon.  Do  you  imagine  that  these 
things  are  unimportant  ?  Then  go  yourself  to 
the  poets,  and  learn  from  them  that  the  life 
''which  sleeps  in  the  plant  and  dreams  in  the 
animal  is  one  with  the  life  that  wakes  in  man '' ; 
that  the  evanescent  is  the  parable  of  the  perma- 
nent; and  that  the  forms  and  metamorphoses  of 
nature  are  but  vanishing  symbols  of  the  forms 
and  metamorphoses  of  mind. 

Himself  a  poet,  though  he  lacks  the  gift  of 
song,  Froebel  seizes  by  instinct  the  typical  aspects 
of  nature  and  presents  them  sympathetically  to 
the  imagination  of  the  child.  Nature  is  the  foe 
man  must  subdue ;  the  servant  he  must  protect ; 
the  companion  he  must  cherish ;  the  inferior  life 
which  he  must  foster  and  develop ;  the  material 
he  must  transform;  the  symbol  he  must  inter- 
pret ;  the  bewildering  variety  which  he  must  re- 
duce to  unity  through  the  discovery  of  processes, 
laws,  and  principles.  To  awaken  in  the  child  a 
presentiment  of  his  true  relationship  to  nature 
means  to  arouse  in  him  the  feelings  which  are 
germinal   responses   to   the  duties   enumerated. 


178  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

Hence  we  find  Froebel  calling  attention  to  the 
subjugation  of  nature  in  such  plays  as  The 
Wolf  and  the  Wild  Boar;  to  the  protection  of 
domestic  animals  in  the  game  of  The  Barnyard ; 
to  the  nurture  of  plants  in  The  Little  Gardener ; 
to  the  companionship  of  nature  in  the  play 
Beckoning  the  Chickens ;  to  the  transformation 
of  material  in  such  games  as  The  Carpenter 
and  Charcoal  Burner ;  to  the  great  symbols  con- 
secrated by  the  imagination  of  the  race  in  The 
Flying  Bird,  The  Weathervane,  and  the  Light- 
Songs;  to  the  crude  beginnings  of  a  scientific 
interpretation  of  nature  in  the  games  dealing 
with  form  and  number,  in  the  gifts  and  occu- 
pations whose  basis  is  mathematical,  and  one 
of  whose  objects  is  the  unification  of  nature 
through  the  discovery  of  her  geometric  arche- 
types, and  finally  through  games  such  as  The 
Bird's  Nest,  wherein  the  particular  object  is  con- 
sidered with  reference  to  its  spatial  environment ; 
games  like  All  Gone,  Grass-mowing,  The  Baker 
and  the  Farmer,  wherein  the  object  is  considered 
with  reference  to  its  temporal  antecedents;  and 
games  like  The  Weathervane,  which  throw  into 
relief  the  idea  of  cause  by  tracing  a  variety  of 
visible  phenomena  to  the  agency  of  a  single  in- 
visible force. 

Ascending  from  the  life  of  nature  to  the  life 


PATTERN  EXPERIENCES.  179 

of  man,  the  kindergarten  games  image  in  sym- 
bolic form  the  great  institutions  of  humanity — 
the  family,  civil  society,  the  state,  and  the  church. 
That  all  children  form  some  rudimentary  idea 
of  these  great  institutions  is  indubitable.  That 
their  future  well-being  and  usefulness  depend  in 
large  measure  upon  the  kind  of  idea  they  form 
is  undeniable.  That  Froebel  is  the  first  educa- 
tor who  has  consciously  and  systematically  en- 
deavored to  abet  the  process  by  which  fantasy 
generates  ethical  ideals  constitutes  one  of  his 
greatest  claims  on  our  gratitude.  Who  shall  say 
how  much  of  the  anarchy  which  with  Caliban 
scouts  and  flouts  all  law  in  the  name  of  freedom 
— how  much  of  the  selfishness  which  with  Pistol 
declares  "the  world  is  mine  oyster" — how  much 
of  the  atheism  which  scoffs  at  God,  at  immor- 
tality, and  at  moral  responsibility,  is  born  of  our 
failure  to  influence  the  imagination  of  childhood 
with  the  ideals  incarnate  in  the  institutions  of 
society  ?  "  Of  this  thing,"  says  wise  Herr  Teu- 
f elsdrockh,  "  be  certain  :  wouldst  thou  plant  for 
eternity  ?  then  plant  into  the  deep  infinite  facul- 
ties of  man,  his  fantasy  and  heart.  Wouldst  thou 
plant  for  year  and  day  ?  then  plant  into  his  shal- 
low, superficial  faculties,  his  self-love,  and  arith- 
metical understanding,  what  will  grow  there." 
Each  man  has  two  selves.    These  two  selves 


180  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

are  familiar  to  ns  under  many  different  names : 
savage  man  and  civilized  man ;  isolated  man  and 
social  man ;  carnal  man  and  spiritual  man ;  natu- 
ral man  and  ideal  man  ;  atomic  man  and  generic 
man ;  the  first  man,  who  is  of  the  earth,  earthy ; 
the  second  man,  who  is  the  Lord  from  heaven. 
Such  are  a  few  of  the  contrasting  appellations 
under  which  language  has  striven  to  articulate 
an  idea  which  in  some  form  makes  itself  known 
to  every  thinking  mind. 

The  institutions  of  society  derive  their  great- 
est significance  from  the  fact  that  they  embody 
and  reveal  generic  selfhood.  The  final  test  of 
any  system  of  education,  therefore,  must  be  its 
ability  to  waken  in  the  mind  of  its  pupils  the 
ethical  ideals  of  which  social  institutions  are  the 
incarnation.  The  battle  between  the  particular 
man  and  the  universal  man  is  inevitable.  The 
only  question  is,  Shall  it  be  fought  out  in  the 
world,  or  in  the  soul  ?  Shall  the  puny  individual 
defy  the  external  embodiments  of  his  own  ideal 
nature  and  perish  in  the  collision  with  these 
substantial  powers  ?  Shall  his  life  be  a  tragedy, 
or  a  divine  comedy,  in  whose  course  he  rises  out 
of  the  inferno  of  selfishness,  and  through  the  pur- 
gatorial discipline  of  visible  institutions  ascends 
into  the  communion  of  the  invisible  Church  ? 
Surely  there  can  be  but  one  answer  to  these  ques- 


PATTERN  EXPERIENCES.  181 

tions,  and  when  we  have  learned  to  put  them  we 
have  begun  to  realize  the  importance  of  that 
active  membership  in  the  universal  life  which 
transmutes  external  restraint  into  internal  in- 
citement, and  purifies  the  passion  for  rule  into 
the  passion  for  service. 

The  influence  of  the  long  period  of  feeble  ado- 
lescence upon  the  historic  development  of  man- 
kind has  of  late  years  been  much  insisted  upon 
by  thoughtful  evolutionists.  The  helplessness  of 
infancy  created  the  family,  and  from  this  rudi- 
mentary germ  all  the  more  complex  social  organ- 
isms have  been  evolved.  The  subordination  of 
individual  caprice  and  selfishness  to  the  interest 
of  the  family -whole  generated  the  altruistic 
ideal.  The  plasticity  of  infancy  made  possible 
the  molding  influence  of  family  habits  and  tra- 
ditions, and  education  began  to  be.  Finally,  the 
acquisition  of  the  mother-tongue  lifted  each  new- 
born individual  out  of  his  mere  atomic  selfhood, 
and  prepared  him  to  avail  himself  of  the  experi- 
ence of  his  fellow-men. 

The  history  of  the  individual  repeats  that  of 
the  race,  and  upon  family  nurture  will  always 
depend  in  large  measure  the  weal  or  woe  of  life. 
What,  then,  must  we  think  of  that  dominant  and 
despotic  infant  who,  by  cries  and  caresses,  by 
threats  and  cajolery,  enslaves  parents,  grandpar- 


182  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

ents,  friends,  and  domestics,  and  makes  himself 
the  autocrat  of  so  many  homes  ?  Of  all  forms  of 
despotism  this  is  the  worst  for  the  despot  him- 
self, since  it  alone  grants  power  without  corre- 
sponding responsibility.  We  can  not  abolish  it  by 
simply  insisting  upon  the  surrender  of  self-will, 
for  coercion  of  the  will,  in  its  reaction,  produces 
evils  greater  than  those  it  seeks  to  cure.  We 
must  illuminate  the  imagination  of  the  child 
with  ideals  of  love  and  gratitude  and  service,  and 
stir  his  soul  with  premonitions  of  the  beauty  and 
sanctity  of  family  life. 

To  accomplish  this  result  is  the  aim  of  Froebel 
in  his  family  plays.  In  the  order  of  these  plays 
we  observe  that  the  first  relationship  objectified 
is  that  of  mother  and  child ;  then  follow  games 
depicting  the  relationship  to  father,  brothers, 
sisters,  and  grandparents.  Most  important  of 
all  is  the  fact  that  the  family  is  presented  as  a 
spiritual  whole  enveloping  and  fostering  the  life 
of  the  individual ;  "  for  where  wholeness  is,''  says 
Froebel, "  there  is  life,  or  at  least  the  germ  of 
life ;  where  division  is,  though  it  be  only  halfness, 
there  is  death,  or  at  least  the  germ  of  death.'' 
Finally,  there  is  hinted  the  response  which  the 
fostered  should  make  to  the  fostering  life,  and 
in  a  number  of  little  games  is  reflected,  as  in  a 
mirror,  the  image  of  the  active  child,  always  busy 


PATTERN  EXPERIENCES.  183 

in  work  or  play ;  the  orderly  child,  prompt  to 
obey  the  voice  of  the  clock  ;  the  pure  and  open- 
hearted  child,  who  shuns  all  secret  ways  and 
words ;  the  sympathetic  child,  to  whom  no  joy  is 
perfect  unless  shared  with  others;  the  loving 
child,  eager  to  render  service  and  give  pleasure  ; 
in  a  word,  the  good  child,  whom  all  men  love, 
and  whom  father  and  mother  love  most  of  all. 

Few  problems  are  more  difficult  to  solve  than 
that  of  the  good  which  man  must  do,  as  related 
to  the  freedom  with  which  it  must  be  done. 
Failure  to  conform  to  the  ideal  pattern  of  hu- 
manity means  failure  to  create  character.  Yet 
external  compulsion  can  not  form  nor  mere  un- 
conscious habit  fix  the  will,  and  too  often  en- 
forced obedience,  recoiling,  produces  boundless 
caprice. 

Theories  of  moral  training  vibrate  between 
the  equally  pernicious  extremes  of  coercion  and 
feeble  indulgence,  because  thought  oscillates  be- 
between  the  perceived  necessity  of  doing  right 
and  the  instinctive  sense  that  virtue  implies  vol- 
untary choice,  and  that  power  to  choose  aright 
can  only  be  developed  by  long  exercise  in  right 
choosing.  It  seems  at  times  that  by  a  slow  inver- 
sion the  outward  may  become  an  inward  "  must," 
and  the  imperative  of  external  command  melt 
imperceptibly  into  the  imperative  of  conscience. 


184  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

Influenced  by  this  latent  assumption  we  make 
much  of  formal  obedience,  and  expect  that  by- 
some  subtle  process  of  moral  alchemy  mechan- 
ical habit  may  be  transmuted  into  spontaneous 
energy.  In  the  recoil  from  this  view  arises  the 
conviction  that  external  drill  and  discipline  tend 
not  to  fashion  the  will,  but  either  to  break  or 
stiffen  it,  and  with  a  burning  feeling  of  the 
sanctity  of  the  individual  soul  we  denounce  the 
outer  compulsion  which  cramps,  fetters,  and  de- 
stroys the  free  energy  of  spirit. 

Froebel  has  endeavored  to  solve  this  moral 
contradiction  in  the  plays  wherein  he  leads  the 
child  to  picture  ideal  childhood.  Representing 
to  ourselves  what  we  ought  to  be  is  the  prelimi- 
nary of  being  what  we  ought.  We  form  char- 
acter by  progressively  canceling  natural  defect, 
and  we  are  incited  to  the  effort  that  overcomes 
by  vision  of  the  good  to  be  achieved.  The  merit 
of  Froebel's  plays  is  that  they  insinuate  truth 
into  the  mind  without  arousing  antagonism  to  it. 
Hence  its  beauty  is  felt  before  its  constraint ;  it 
allures  before  it  commands  or  threatens;  and 
with  heart  inflamed  by  the  vision  of  the  ideal  the 
child  becomes  a  law  unto  himself  before  law  is 
externally  revealed  as  binding  upon  him. 

The  organizing  principle  of  industrial  life  is 
the  division  of  labor.    This  principle  demands 


PATTERN  EXPERIENCES.  185 

that  each,  man  shall  restrict  himself  to  a  particu- 
lar calling,  and  in  this  calling  work  directly  for 
others  and  only  indirectly  for  himself.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  enables  each  man  to  profit  by  the 
labor  of  all  men,  and  applies  the  strength  of  uni- 
versal endeavor  to  the  supply  of  individual  need. 
Out  of  this  reciprocal  relation  of  each  to  all  and 
all  to  each  arise  the  sense  of  social  dependence 
and  the  feeling  of  personal  responsibility;  and 
these  in  turn  give  birth  to  the  virtues  of  industry, 
punctuality,  kindliness,  and  courtesy.  In  a  word, 
the  institution  of  civil  society  raises  the  ac- 
tivity which  supplies  material  needs  into  the 
spiritual  realm  and  causes  it  to  take  on  the  form 
of  participation  characteristic  of  all  spiritual 
energies. 

The  aim  of  the  labor  plays  is  to  stir  in  the 
child^s  mind  some  presentiment  of  the  beauty  of 
universal  service,  some  sense  of  his  own  obliga- 
tion to  serve.  In  pursuit  of  this  aim  Froebel 
leads  him  from  the  objects  of  daily  use  and  com- 
fort back  to  the  activities  which  they  imply. 
How  shall  the  child  think  of  his  food,  his  cloth- 
ing, and  the  house  which  shelters  him  ?  Shall  he 
think  them  only  as  related  to  his  own  need  or 
pleasure,  and  thus  foster  his  inborn  selfishness  ? 
Shall  he  be  taught  in  vague  general  terms  that 
he  has  all  these  good  things  because  God  gives 


186  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

them  to  him,  or  because  his  father  works  for 
them ;  or  shall  he  be  led  to  realize  in  some  meas- 
ure the  varied  activities  which  must  concur  in 
the  production  of  the  simplest  objects,  and  thus 
be  brought  to  a  more  conscious  sense  of  his 
dependence  upon  nature,  upon  man,  and  upon 
God  ?  In  the  games  of  The  Grass-mowing  and 
The  Baker,  Froebel  clearly  indicates  his  own  be- 
lief that  children  should  be  led  to  conceive  all 
particular  things  as  results  of  active  processes, 
and  teaches  us  that  the  first  step  toward  the 
formation  of  such  a  habit  of  thought  is  the 
dramatic  representation  of  the  simple  activities 
which  lie  back  of  the  commonest  objects.  In  his 
view,  an  isolated  fact  is  a  dead  fact ;  grasped  in 
its  total  process  it  is  a  living  and  life-giving  fact. 
Thus  the  cup  of  milk  is  a  dead  fact,  but  it  is 
made  alive  by  leading  the  child  to  represent  how 
MoUie  milks  the  cow,  how  Peter  mows  the  grass 
in  the  meadow  and  gives  it  to  the  cow  for  food, 
and  how  upon  the  growing  grass  the  sun  must 
shine  and  the  rain  fall.  The  slice  of  bread,  too, 
takes  on  a  deeper  meaning  when  its  genesis  is 
traced  through  the  baker,  the  miller,  and  the 
farmer  to  the  wheat  planted  in  the  earth,  and, 
like  the  grass,  quickened  by  the  sunshine  and  fed 
by  the  showers.  The  final  question  comes  of 
itself,  Hath  the  rain  a  father  ?  or  who  hath  be- 


PATTERN  EXPERIENCES.  187 

gotten  the  drops  of  dew  ?  Thus  man's  daily  food 
testifies  forever  to  the  living  bread  which  satis- 
fies all  hunger,  and  his  drink  to  that  wondrous 
well  which  shall  spring  up  within  him  into  ever- 
lasting life. 

Twin-born  out  of  the  recognition  that  all 
things  are  working  together  for  him,  spring  into 
life  the  child's  gratitude  and  his  sense  of  respon- 
sibility. For  this  universal  service  shall  not  his 
heart  return  love  and  thanks  ?  In  a  world  where 
all  things  work,  shall  he  alone  be  idle  ?  Froebel 
merely  teaches  him  how  to  utter  his  own  feeling 
when  he  bids  him  thank  Peter  for  the  mowing, 
MoUie  for  the  milking,  and  the  cow  for  the  milk. 
He  is  only  responding  to  the  child's  aroused  in- 
stinct, when  in  the  game  of  The  Baker  he  urges 
him  to  make  ready  the  cake  for  the  oven,  and 
encourages  him  to  feel  that  he  is  one  of  the  links 
in  that  living  chain  of  activity  which  girdles  the 
world.  Where  many  work  together  each  must 
do  his  part  promptly ;  therefore, "  Be  ready,  child, 
with  your  cake,  for  the  baker  is  calling : 

"  *  Bring  the  little  cake  to  me, 
Soon  my  oven  cold  will  be.'  " 

Having  pictured  the  activities  upon  which 

the  child  depends  for  food,  Froebel  passes  to 

the  activities  on  which  he  depends  for  shelter. 

"  See  the  carpenter,"  begins  his  new  song ;  "  all 
11 


188  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

day  lie  works  away  ;  he  makes  the  high  low ;  the 
curved,  flat;  the  long,  short;  and  the  rough, 
smooth/^  Singing  these  words  the  child  repre- 
sents the  cutting  down  of  the  tree,  and  the 
change  of  the  cylindrical  log  into  the  flat  board, 
which  is  then  shortened  and  planed.  The  raw 
material  of  nature  being  at  last  completely  trans- 
formed, the  song  advances  to  the  suggestion  that 
the  planed  boards  be  put  together  to  make  a 

house : 

"  Now  all  must  be  combined, 
All  parts  together  joined. 
Just  see  what  the  carpenter  shows  ! 
From  timbers  the  house  now  grows." 

Nor  is  this  all :  the  house  is  for  the  father, 
mother,  and  child ;  it  is,  as  Froebel  himself  else- 
where declares,  ^^  that  body  of  the  family  which 
protects  its  soul";  not  a  house  merely,  but  a 
home ;  the  shield  of  family  sanctity,  the  guardian 
of  family  love.  So  in  its  varied  forms  as  manu- 
factory, store,  statehouse,  and  church,  the  house 
is  the  symbol  and  shelter  of  the  spiritual  ideals 
of  civil  society,  national  unity,  and  religious 
worship.  These  larger  houses  correspond  to 
man's  larger  selves,  and  prophesy  the  "house 
not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens  " — 
that  everlasting  home  which  shall  shelter  im- 
mortal life. 

To  the  games  of  The  Grass-Mowing,  Baker,  and 


PATTERN  EXPERIENCES.  189 

Carpenter,  Froebel  adds  those  of  The  Joiner,  The 
Wheelwright,  and  The  Charcoal  Burner.  In  the 
portrayal  of  these  different  industries  the  kinder- 
gartner  should  follow  one  simple  plan.  She  must 
first  connect  the  particular  activity  represented 
with  some  essential  need  of  the  child ;  then  show 
its  relationship  to  other  industries  and  its  depend- 
ence upon  nature ;  and,  last  of  all,  suggest  the 
spiritual  ideal  which  is  its  final  cause  or  motive. 
The  child  readily  understands  that  without  the 
joiner  he  would  lack  furniture  ;  without  coal  his 
house  could  not  be  warmed  or  his  food  cooked ; 
without  the  wheel  there  could  be  no  cart  or  car- 
riage, no  mills  for  grinding  flour  or  sawing  wood, 
no  locomotives,  and  no  ships.  The  final  aim  of 
all  labor  may  also  be  readily  indicated.  Why  is^ 
the  child  housed,  fed,  warmed,  and  transported 
from  place  to  place  ?  Is  it  not  that  he  may  be 
given  opportunity  for  spiritual  growth  and  un- 
folding ?  Or,  varying  the  question.  Why  does 
each  man  work  in  some  particular  calling  ?  Is  it 
not  that  he  may  on  the  one  hand  make  himself 
'^  a  worthy  instrument  of  the  universal  life,''  and 
on  the  other  that  in  ^'  the  one  thing  he  does  right- 
ly he  may  behold  the  semblance  of  all  that  is 
rightly  done ''  ? 

The  picture  which  Froebel  presents  of  indus- 
trial life  is  weakened  by  the  addition  of  plays 


190  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

portraying  either  menial  employments  or  those 
which  minister  to  accidental  or  artificial  needs. 
Thus,  to  substitute  for  the  charcoal  burner,  or  his 
English  and  American  equivalent  the  coal  miner, 
such  personages  as  the  water-cress  woman,  the 
costermonger,  or  the  cabman,  is  entirely  to  miss 
the  idea  which  this  game  embodies.  The  thought 
Froebel  wishes  to  make  prominent  in  the  char- 
coal burner  is  the  dignity  of  labor ;  hence,  he 
purposely  chooses  for  his  hero  one  whose  humble 
station  contrasts  strikingly  with  his  economic 
importance.  Like  Carlyle,  he  is  celebrating  "  the 
toil-worn  craftsman  that  with  earth-made  imple- 
ment laboriously  conquers  the  earth  and  makes 
her  man's  '^ ;  and  he  would  have  the  child  feel  that 
*^  for  him  was  this  brother's  back  so  bent  and  his 
straight  limbs  and  fingers  so  deformed.''  Our  la- 
bor games  should  represent  only  the  real  heroes  of 
toil.  Little  Scissors-Grinders,  Little  Bootblacks, 
and  Little  Waiters  may  therefore  with  advantage 
be  excluded  from  our  kindergartens ;  and  I,  for 
one,  heartily  disagree  with  the  sentiment  that 
the  kindergartener  should  endeavor  to  make  even 
the  garbage  cart  poetic. 

Those  disciples  of  Froebel  who  believe  that  he 
held  the  Pestalozzian  doctrine  that  all  elemen- 
tary instruction  should  be  addressed  to  sense-per- 
ception will  do  well  to  consider  carefully  his 


PATTERN  EXPERIENCES.  191 

practical  procedure  as  illustrated  in  the  labor 
plays.  So  far  was  Froebel  from  the  thought  that 
all  knowledge  is  derived  from  sense-perception, 
that  one  may  say  his  whole  aim  is  to  lead  the 
pupil  from  the  immediate  object  of  sense  back- 
ward to  its  producing  cause  and  forward  to  its 
ideal  aim.  We  do  not  get  at  any  true  reality 
in  sense-perception,  for  the  perceived  object  ex- 
presses merely  a  temporary  equilibrium  between 
a  regressive  and  progressive  series  of  activities. 
Hence,  objects  can  be  explained  only  in  terms  of 
force.  In  like  manner  particular  events  must  be 
interpreted  by  relating  them  to  the  past  events 
upon  which  they  depend  and  the  future  events 
toward  which  they  point. 

We  must  purge  our  minds  of  the  superstition 
that  thought  is  a  kind  of  etherealized  sense-per- 
ception. Thought  deals  not  with  things,  but  with 
the  energies  that  originate  and  destroy  things. 
The  child's  incessant  "  Why  ? ''  shows  us  that  ho 
can  not  rest  in  mere  sense-perception.  His  delight 
in  such  stories  as  The  House  that  Jack  Built,  The 
Strange  Adventures  of  Henny  Penny,  and  the  sad 
experiences  of  The  Old  Woman  and  her  Pig,  is 
explained  by  the  fact  that  in  these  tales  he  con- 
templates a  series  of  apparently  related  events. 
The  great  duty  of  education  is  to  teach  the  path 
of  ascent  from  facts  to  causes,  and  to  draw  around 


192  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

each,  circle  of  causal  process  the  wider  circle  in 
which  it  is  included. 

The  Mother-Play  contains  no  play  symboliz- 
ing the  State,  but  since  games  of  this  kind  are 
justified  by  the  instinct  of  childhood,  the  gen- 
eral thought  of  Froebel,  and  the  traditional  prac- 
tice of  the  kindergarten,  they  may  fitly  be  con- 
sidered in  this  chapter.  The  State  orders  and 
protects  the  other  institutions  of  society,  and 
upon  its  existence  depend  that  participation  of 
each  in  the  labor  of  all  which  is  the  condition 
of  material  prosperity  and  that  participation  of 
each  in  the  experience  of  all  which  is  the  condi- 
tion of  spiritual  growth.  As  the  incarnation  of 
man^s  colossal  selfhood,  the  state  rightfully  de- 
mands absolute  allegiance,  and  he  is  no  true  pa- 
triot who  will  not  freely  surrender  all  things,  and 
even  life  itself,  for  his  country.  Therefore  the 
soldier  is  the  truest  symbol  of  the  state,  and  pa- 
triotic feeling  is  most  easily  stirred  in  the  hearts 
of  young  children  by  allowing  them  to  represent 
soldiers.  Marching  with  drums  and  flags  to  the 
music  of  national  airs  should  be  an  occasional 
exercise  in  all  kindergartens,  and  the  distinctive 
feature  of  the  programme  on  all  anniversaries  of 
important  events  in  the  nation's  history. 

The  objection  to  soldier  games  rests  upon  a 
mistake  as  to  their  symbolic  significance,  and  to 


PATTERN  EXPERIENCES.  193 

their  association  with  tho  cruelty  of  war  rather 
than  with  the  heroism  of  patriotic  self-sacrifice. 
The  child  mind  knows  not  the  horrors  but  the 
poetry  of  battle;  the  heart  of  the  boy  soldier 
thrills  not  with  the  idea  of  killing  others,  but 
with  the  lofty  feeling  that  he,  too,  may  be  counted 
worthy  to  die  for  the  state. 

As  the  children  mature  they  should  be  told  of 
the  exploits  of  national  heroes,  should  learn  pa- 
triotic poems,  should  see  national  monuments,  and 
participate  in  the  celebration  of  national  holi- 
days. Above  all,  they  should  from  time  to  time 
see  a  statehouse  or  a  good  picture  of  one.  The 
domes  of  these  great  buildings  are  architectural 
symbols  of  the  idea  of  justice,  which,  like  the 
blue  vault  of  heaven,  bends  equally  over  all ;  and 
whoever  will  recall  the  influence  of  such  build- 
ings upon  his  childish  imagination  may  assure 
himself  of  their  power  to  waken  a  predictive 
consciousness  of  the  truth  they  embody. 

The  early  development  of  patriotic  feeling, 
important  for  all  children,  is  especially  important 
for  the  children  of  America.  Our  Anglo-Saxon 
impulse  is  to  insist  that  the  individual  shall 
share  the  energies  of  the  state,  and  our  proudest 
boast  is  that  we  live  under  a  government  ^^of  the 
people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people.'^  On 
tho  other  hand,  we  lack  that  instinct  of  race 


194  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

which,  intensifies  the  passion  of  patriotism ;  nei- 
ther have  we  those  traditions  of  a  long  historic 
past  which  give  sanctity  to  the  customs  and  ob- 
servances of  the  present.  In  our  country  all 
races  meet  and  all  the  different  streams  of  history 
and  tradition  mingle.  There  is  danger  that  our 
wide  tolerance  may  degenerate  into  indifference ; 
that  we  shall  become  cosmopolitan  at  the  expense 
of  our  patriotism ;  and  that  while  loudly  claim- 
ing the  right  of  self-government  we  shall  grow 
increasingly  oblivious  of  the  duties  of  citizenship. 
We  should  therefore  welcome  every  influence, 
however  small,  which  helps  to  stir  the  depths 
of  patriotic  feeling  and  quicken  the  sense  of 
patriotic  obligation.* 

The  careful  student  of  the  nursery  songs  will 
observe  that  alike  through  the  plays  which  deal 
primarily  with  nature  and  through  those  which 
deal  primarily  with  human  relationships  Froebel 
is  forever  suggesting,  symbolizing,  adumbrating 
the  child's  relationship  to  God.    Thus  the  song 

*  The  reader  may  be  interested  to  recall  Dante's  description 
of  the  Florentine  mothers  relating  to  their  little  ones  legends 
of  the  heroic  past : 

"  One  o'er  the  cradle  kept  her  studious  watch, 
And  in  her  lullaby  the  language  used 
That  first  delights  the  fathers  and  the  mothers; 
Another,  drawing  tresses  from  her  distaff, 
Told  o'er  among  her  family  the  tales 
Of  Trojans,  and  of  Fesole  and  Rome.'' 


PATTERN  EXPERIENCES.  195 

of  The  Bird's  Nest  points  first  to  mother-love  as 
shown  in  nature,  next  to  human  motherhood, 
and  finally  to  the  fostering  care  and  tenderness 
of  Him  who  is  of  all  mother-love  the  source  and 
original.  In  like  manner,  the  Wind-Song  ad- 
vances from  the  child's  consciousness  of  an  un- 
seen energy  in  himself  to  the  recognition  of  an 
unseen  energy  in  nature,  and  from  this  to  a  fore- 
gleam  of  the  truth  that  in  the  unseen  God  all 
things  live  and  move  and  have  their  being.  The 
Light-Songs  illustrate  the  influence  of  the  uni- 
versal upon  the  particular,  and  are  thus  symbolic 
of  the  truth  that  the  soul  lives  only  as  it  reflects 
the  life  of  God.  The  labor  plays  move  from 
some  object  which  supplies  an  essential  need  to 
the  human  industries,  and  natural  forces  con- 
cerned in  its  production,  and  this  sequence  of 
activities  points  to  a  source  of  all  activity.  The 
three  Songs  of  the  Knights,  in  which  the  hero  of 
the  child's  dreams  passes  judgment  upon  him, 
arouse  conscience  and  reveal  the  God  who  speaks 
in  her  still  small  voice.  Last  of  all,  God  is  made 
known  in  the  visible  institution,  whose  mission 
is  to  hold  up  the  Divine  Ideal  as  the  object  of 
adoration  and  worship,  and  as  the  final  cause  and 
explanation  of  the  world. 

That    this    method    of    developing    religious 
ideals  is  the  true  one,  we  may  infer  both  from 


196  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

its  correspondence  with  the  order  of  their  his- 
toric unfolding  and  from  the  fact  that  our  own 
thoughts  of  God  are  shaped  and  guided  by  the 
analogies  under  which  he  is  made  known  to  us 
in  our  holy  books.  God  is  light.  His  spirit,  like 
the  wind,  bloweth  where  it  listeth.  As  the  eagle 
fluttereth  over  her  young  and  beareth  them,  so 
the  Lord  beareth  his  servant.  The  mother  may 
forget  her  nursing  child,  yet  will  not  God  for- 
get his  own.  God  is  a  shepherd,  a  husbandman, 
a  judge,  a  king.  The  Son  of  God  is  our  elder 
brother,  our  friend,  the  bridegroom  of  the 
Church;  the  ideal  warrior  or  knight,  who  sits 
upon  a  white  horse  and  whose  name  is  Faithful 
and  True.  These  images  consecrate  nature 
and  human  relationships  by  declaring  the  ideal 
which  they  imply  but  never  realize.  Nature 
throws  out  only  dark  hints  with  regard  to  the 
character  of  God,  yet  there  is  no  single  class  of 
natural  objects  before  which  the  human  heart 
has  failed  to  bow  in  worship.  Sun  and  moon, 
thunder,  lightning,  and  wind ;  mountain  and 
river,  beast,  reptile,  bird,  tree,  have  all  told  men 
something  of  the  Divine  First  Principle.  In 
human  affections  God  is  more  adequately  re- 
vealed, though  even  in  these  he  is  still  seen  "  as 
in  a  glass  darkly.'^  Among  men  are  no  perfect 
fathers,  yet  the  ancestors  of  Aryan  and  Semitic 

■  }-::^'^\ 


PATTERN  EXPERIENCES.  197 

peoples  alike  venerated  the  perfect  fatherhood. 
Among  women  are  no  perfect  mothers,  yet  he 
whom  we  revere  as  fourth  and  last  of  the  poets 
whose  insight  "  time  can  not  unmake,"  finds  the 
solution  of  all  problems  in  the  *^Ewig-Weib- 
liche."  Among  men  are  no  perfect  husbands, 
friends,  rulers,  or  deliverers,  yet  assuredly  each 
one  of  these  relationships  points  to  an  ideal 
which  it  would  destroy  life  to  believe  a  delusion 
and  a  dream. 

I  venture  therefore  to  think  that  Froebel  is 
only  stating  explicitly  what  we  all  implicitly  be- 
lieve, when  he  affirms  that  "from  every  object 
in  nature  and  life  there  is  a  way  to  God,"  *  and 
when  he  declares  that  "  the  feeling  of  community 
first  uniting  the  child  with  mother,  father, 
brothers,  sisters,  and  resting  on  a  higher  spirit- 
ual unity ;  to  which,  later  on,  is  added  the  dis- 
covery that  father,  mother,  brothers,  sisters, 
human  beings  in  general,  feel  and  know  them- 
selves to  be  in  community  and  unity  with  a 
higher  principle,  with  humanity — with  God ;  this 
feeling  of  community  is  the  very  first  germ,  the 
very  first  beginning  of  all  true  religious  spirit, 
of  all  genuine  yearning  for  unhindered  unifica- 
tion with  the  Eternal,  with  God."  f 

*  Education  of  Man,  Hailmann's  translation,  p.  202 


t  Ibid,  p.  25.  .^T^^^-^^ 

[MIT  BE 


V 


198  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

Only  by  connecting  it  with  this  method  of 
developing  religious  emotions  and  aspirations 
can  we  understand  FroebeFs  Song  of  the  Church. 
The  heart  of  the  child  has  throbbed  with  strange 
presentiments  in  presence  of  the  church  whose 
spire  "  like  a  silent  finger  points  to  heaven."  Ho 
has  heard  the  solemn  peal  of  the  Sabbath  bells, 
and  watched  men  and  women  moving  in  groups 
toward  the  sacred  building.  That  feeling  of  com- 
munity which  originally  bound  the  family  into  a 
living  whole  becomes  now  the  magnet  which  at- 
tracts him  to  the  church,  and  inspires  his  de- 
light in  her  uncomprehended  services.  He  un- 
derstands not  a  word  of  what  is  said  and  sung, 
yet  he  is  happy  in  the  assurance  that  a  common 
thought  is  stirring  many  minds,  a  common  feel- 
ing thrilling  many  hearts.  Surely  this  common 
thought  is  the  one  thought  worth  thinking — tho 
one  truth  that,  could  he  know  it,  would  explain 
all  things  to  him,  and  make  articulate  the  voice- 
less longing  of  his  own  soul. 

To  this  feeling  of  the  child  Froebel  responds 
in  a  song  pointing  him  to  the  church  as  the 
place  where  all  questions  are  answered,  all  prob- 
lems solved.  There  he  shall  learn  ^^  why  flowers 
bloom  and  birdies  sing  " ;  "  what  means  the  feel- 
ing with  which  he  watches  the  moon,  the  stars, 
and  the  sunset  glow ;  why  he  trusts  father  and 


PATTERN  EXPERIENCES.  199 

mother ;  what  makes  the  joy  of  Christmas  day/^ 
In  a  single  word,  the  song  of  the  Church  recalls 
and  interprets  all  the  salient  experiences  of  the 
child's  soul,  and  "  binds  his  day»  each  to  each  by 
natural  piety," 

The  one  great  difficulty  in  the  way  of  carry- 
ing out  Froebers  ideal  of  religious  development 
is  our  own  lack  of  vital  piety.  It  is  easy  to  teach 
catechisms ;  it  is  not  easy  to  awaken  and  foster 
faith,  hope,  and  love.  Any  mother  may  force  her 
child  to  memorize  men's  definitions  of  God,  but 
only  one  who  has  herself  a  filial  spirit  can  teach 
him  to  know  his  heavenly  Father.  She  whose 
own  soul  is  dead  may  be  a  religious  drill  ser- 
geant, but  only  the  living  spirit  can  communicate 
spiritual  life.* 

In  what  depths  of  the  soul  is  rooted  that 
"  feeling  of  community  which  attracts  the  child 

*  Readers  of  Carlylo  will  recall  the  religious  education  of 
Gneschen  :  "  My  kind  mother — for  as  such  I  must  ever  love  the 
good  Gneschen — did  me  one  altogether  invaluable  service :  she 
taught  me,  less  indeed  by  word  than  by  act  and  daily  reverent 
use  and  habitude,  her  own  simple  version  of  the  Christian  faith. 
Andreas,  too,  attended  church,  yet  more  like  a  parade  duty, 
for  which  he  in  the  other  world  expected  pay  with  arrears — as, 
I  trust,  he  has  received ;  but  my  mother,  with  a  true  woman's 
heart  and  fine  though  uncultivated  sense,  was  in  the  strictest 
acceptation  religious.  How  indestructibly  the  good  grows  and 
propagates  itself,  even  among  the  weedy  entanglements  of  evil  I 
Tlio  highest  whom  I  knew  on  earth  I  hero  saw  bowed  down, 
with  awe  unspeakable,  before  a  higher  in  heaven.    Such  things, 


200  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

to  the  Churcli,  we  shall  best  understand  by  re- 
ferring once  more  to  the  fact  that  the  words 
ideal  and  generic  are  but  different  expressions  of 
one  great  reality.  When  different  individuals 
are  inspired  by  the  same  ideal  they  enter  into  a 
communion  of  thought  and  sympathy.  That 
they  can  be  inspired  by  the  same  ideals  implies 
an  original  community  of  nature.  The  ideal  is 
the  generic  in  the  individual,  and  its  progressive 
recognition  both  emancipates  man  and  enables 
him  to  recognize  his  own  essential  self  in  all 
other  men.  What  may  be  shared  with  all  men 
is  what  is  highest  in  each  man.  Insight  into 
this  truth  is  man's  redemption  from  selfish  indi- 
vidualism into  the  unity  of  the  spirit. 

But  one  step  remains  to  be  taken.  The  reality 
of  each  man  is  his  ideal  nature.  This  ideal  nature 
is  universal ;  it  is  the  element  in  each  one  of  us 
which  unites  us  with  others  and  separates  us 
from  our  own  partial  and  selfish  selves.  It  is 
in  us,  yet  not  of  us.  It  is  the  power  in  our  souls 
"which  always  makes  for  righteousness.^'  Its 
uncompromising  demand  is  self-renunciation,  its 
eternal  promise  self-fulfillment.     In  flashes  of 

especially  in  infancy,  reach  inward  to  the  very  core  of  your 
being ;  mysteriously  does  a  holy  of  holies  build  itself  into  visi- 
bility in  the  mysterious  deeps ;  and  reverence,  the  divinest  in 
man,  springs  forth  undying  from  its  mean  envelopment  of 
fear." 


PATTERN  EXPERIENCES.  201 

insight  we  recognize  it  as  the  indwelling  of  the 
divine  in  the  human,  a  living  spirit  working 
within  humanity  to  redeem  it  into  the  image  of 
God. 

In  her  central  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  the 
Christian  Church  proclaims  the  ideal  unity  of 
the  human  and  the  divine.  Moreover,  she  iden- 
tifies the  divine  with  the  generic  in  her  asser- 
tion that  the  God-man  is  the  universal  man,  or, 
in  other  words,  that  Christ  was  not  a  man,  but 
mankind.  She  affirms  that  "  the  true  light  light- 
eth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world '' ;  that 
each  man  is  a  partaker  of  the  divine  nature; 
that  in  Christ  Jesus  there  is  neither  Jew  nor 
Greek,  bond  nor  free,  male  nor  female ;  that  the 
mystery  hid  from  ages  and  generations  is  Christ 
in  man,  the  hope  of  glory.  She  calls  upon  each 
individual  to  renounce  the  carnal  and  put  on 
the  spiritual  man,  and  she  promises  him  that  by 
meditating  on  her  doctrines,  participating  in  her 
prayers,  her  praises,  and  her  sacranients,  and 
above  all  by  sharing  her  ministry  to  the  young, 
the  needy,  the  sorrowing,  and  the  sinful,  he  shall 
learn  to  comprehend  the  divine  charity,  and  shall 
be  transfigured  into  its  image. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  bridges  the 
seemingly  impassable  chasm  which  separates  the 
finite  from  the  infinite :  "  For,  if  the  divine  de- 


202  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

scends  into  the  iSlesli,  and  wraps  about  him  the 
perishing  vestures  of  time  and  space,  then  the  ele- 
ments of  time  and  space  and  the  finitude  of  the 
human  will  may  be  receptive  of  the  divine/^* 
The  characteristic  quality  of  God  is  self -impart- 
ing grace,  and  he  can  not  be  satisfied  with  giv- 
ing anything  less  than  himself.  The  character- 
istic quality  of  man  is  infinite  susceptibility  to 
and  possibility  of  the  divine.  Hence  man  is,  as 
St.  Chrysostom  afiirmed,  the  true  shekinah  ;  and 
the  Incarnation,  as  St.  Thomas  declared,  "  the  ex- 
altation of  human  nature  and  the  consummation 
of  the  universe.^^  t 

He  who  studies  the  signs  of  the  times  will 
observe  that  our  wisest  preachers  are  confining 
themselves  more  and  more  strictly  to  promul- 
gation of  the  truth,  that  in  the  transcendent  per- 
sonality of  the  historic  Christ  we  may  behold 
what  God  is  and  what  man  ought  to  be.  The 
tendency  of  the  carnal  mind  is  to  create  the  di- 
vine in  its  own  image,  and  too  often  the  Being 
men  worship  is  not  God,  but  the  devil.  From 
such  profane  and  blasphemous  thoughts  of  our 
heavenly  Father  we  are  delivered  by  the  con- 
templation of  his  image  in  the  Son  of  Man. 
"  From  the  God  of  man^s  painting  we  turn  to 

*  Church  and  State,  a  Lecture  by  Dr.  Harris. 
f  Cited  in  Lux  Muiidi. 


PATTERN  EXPERIENCES.  203 

the  man  of  God's  being,  and  he  leads  us  to  the 
true  God,  the  radiation  of  whose  glory  we  first 
see  in  him."  Can  we  doubt  the  love  of  God  while 
we  remember  the  love  of  Jesus  ?  Can  we  fear 
that  God  will  lose  one  of  his  little  ones  while  we 
remember  how  the  Good  Shepherd  laid  down  his 
life  for  the  sheep  ?  On  the  other  hand,  dare  we 
affirm  that  man  is  by  nature  weak  and  sinful 
when  we  contemplate  the  divine  humanity  ?  To 
err  is  not  human.  To  sin  is  to  be  less  than  man. 
We  paralyze  our  consciences  by  our  refusal  to 
recognize  in  Jesus  the  one  true  man  as  well  as 
the  perfect  image  of  the  one  true  God. 

"  Arise  and  fly 
The  reeling  Faun,  the  sensual  feast ; 
Move  upward,  working  out  the  beast, 
And  let  the  ape  and  tiger  die." 

Sacredest  of  all  symbols  is  the  cross,  for  it  is 
the  meeting  point  of  divine  and  human  self-sac- 
rifice— typifying,  on  the  one  hand,  that  process 
of  grace  through  which  the  infinite  descends  into 
the  finite ;  and,  on  the  other,  the  self -crucifixion 
through  which  the  finite  renounces  its  finitude 
and  ascends  into  the  infinite.  It  explains  the 
struggle  of  each  contrite  heart.  It  sanctifies  the 
act  of  every  hero  who  dies  to  bless  his  fellow- 
men.  It  elevates  history  into  a  true  theodicy. 
Descendit  Deus  ut  assurgamus  !     Such  is  the 

15 


204  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

answer  of  the  cross  to  the  enigma  of  the  uni- 
verse.* 

It  is  customary  among  the  disciples  of  Froebel 
to  say  that  the  Mother-Play  is  the  point  of  de- 
parture for  a  natural  system  of  education,  be- 
cause it  teaches  the  way  in  which  the  germs  of 
character  and  thought  may  be  developed.  But 
what  are  these  germs  of  character  and  thought  ? 
Are  they  independent  and  manifold,  or  are  they 
ultimately  reducible  to  unity  ?  Is  there  any 
principle  of  connection  among  the  separate  vir- 
tues ?  Has  the  activity  of  thought  any  general 
or  ideal  form  ?  Such  are  the  questions  which 
arise  in  our  minds  so  soon  as  we  seriously  set 
ourselves  to  consider  how  we  may  nourish  the 
germs  of  thought  and  character.  To  discover 
the  answer  Froebel  made  to  them  in  his  practical 
procedure  has  been  my  purpose  in  the  present 
chapter. 

Having  climbed  by  the  pathway  of  Froebel's 
plays  to  the  summit  of  his  mount  of  vision,  we 
may  perhaps  understand  his  theoretical  explana- 
tions as  given  in  the  mottoes  and  commentaries. 


*  "  That  the  history  of  the  world,  with  all  the  changing 
scenes  which  its  annals  present,  is  the  process  of  development 
and  the  realization  of  spirit ;  this  is  the  true  Theodicaea — the 
justification  of  God  in  historj ."—EegeVs  Philosophy  of  His- 
tory ^  p.  477* 


PATTERN  EXPERIENCES.  205 

One  great  idea  fires  liis  mind — the  idea  that  the 
conscious  aim  of  education  should  be  to  illumi- 
nate the  mind  of  the  pupil  with  the  vision  of 
the  whole,  and  consecrate  his  will  with  the  pur- 
pose of  living  in  and  for  the  whole.  To  seek  the 
tie  which  binds  separate  elements  in  one  whole  is 
the  characteristic  act  of  thought.  Feeling  of  the 
tie  which  binds  the  individual  first  to  the  mother 
and  later  to  the  other  members  of  the  family, 
is  the  germ  of  moral  character.  The  ascent  of 
thought  to  higher  planes  of  development  is 
marked  by  the  union  of  lesser  into  larger  wholes 
through  the  discovery  of  causal  relationship, 
while  correspondingly  the  growth  of  character 
is  marked  by  an  extension  of  the  sense  of  com- 
munity originally  uniting  the  individual  and  the 
family  to  the  larger  social  wholes,  and  the  culti- 
vation of  the  specific  virtues  arising  from  these 
expanded  relationships.  The  goal  of  thought  is 
the  discovery  of  a  single  cause  capable  of  uniting 
and  explaining  all  the  different  series  of  lesser 
causes ;  the  goal  of  character  is  the  transmuta- 
tion of  mere  spontaneity  into  that  rational  free- 
dom which  ^^  lives  resolutely  in  the  whole,  the 
good,  the  true." 

With  the  insight  that  each  man  is  ideally  the 
Cosmos,  we  enter  the  inmost  sanctuary  of  Froe- 
bel's  mind.    This  insight  is  identical  with  that  of 


206  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

Christianity.  It  is  the  star  which  leads  whoso 
follows  it  to  the  comprehension  of  Occidental  as 
opposed  to  Oriental  thought.  It  has  created  the 
civilizations  of  Europe  and  America.  It  has  in- 
spired the  modern  crusade  against  ignorance.  It 
is  creating  the  science  and  art  of  education. 
Working  in  the  mind  of  Froebel,  it  produced 
the  kindergarten  and  the  Mother-Play.  Man  is 
not  "the  dewdrop  that  slips  into  the  shining 
sea."  He  is  the  dewdrop  that  reflects  earth  and 
sky.  The  chief  end — say  rather  the  sole  end — of 
man  is  to  be  the  mirror  of  divine  life  and  love. 
The  duty  of  each  individual  is  to  see  to  it  that 
he  be  not  a  cloudy  mirror,  a  diminishing  mirror, 
or  a  distorting  mirror ;  or,  in  plain  words,  that, 
purging  his  soul  of  passion,  selfishness,  and  pride, 
he  give  back  to  a  blessed  universe  its  own  blessed 
image.* 

*  The  attentive  reader  is  doubtless  already  conscious  of  the 
fact  that  by  a  different  path  we  have  again  arrived  at  FroebeFs 
insight  into  the  nature  of  man  as  Gliedganzes.  To  this  creative 
insight  Froebel  has  given  many  different  names,  but  in  the 
Pedagogics  of  the  Kindergarten  he  himself  points  out  the  iden- 
tity of  thought  under  the  variety  of  expression  by  calling  his 
fundamental  idea  in  one  breath  "  the  law  of  Opposites,  the  law 
of  the  Member-whole — the  law  of  Mediation,  the  law  of  the 
Triune  Life."  Each  of  these  expressions  refers  to  a  particular 
aspect  of  the  general  thought.  Elsewhere  he  describes  this  in- 
sight as  the  principle  of  life-unity  (Lebenseinheit),  the  process 
of  life-unification  (Lebenseinigung),  The  kindergartner  whose 
inward  eye  has  never  rested  upon  the  insight  thus  variously 


PATTERN  EXPERIENCES.  207 

described  may  assure  herself  that  she  has  no  comprehension  of 
Froebel,  and  can  in  no  true  sense  call  herself  his  disciple. 

The  following  extracts  from  the  Introduction,  Mottoes,  and 
Commentaries  of  the  Mother-Play  will  show  how  completely 
Froebel's  mind  was  dominated  by  the  idea  of  the  "whole." 
The  poems  marked  with  a  star  (*)  are  from  the  translation  of 
Miss  Fanny  Q.  Dwight ;  those  marked  with  a  f  from  the  trans- 
lation of  the  Misses  Lord : 

"  Ever  in  relations  with  the  child  recall 
The  truth,  that  Unity  exists  in  all. 
Without  it  all  thy  efforts  aimless  are, 
Nor  can  the  child  for  higher  truths  prepare. 
A  hint  of  this  already  thou  art  showing 
In  this  pleasant  little  game.  Grass-mowing."  * 

**  Though  meaningless  this  play  may  seem, 
There's  more  in  it  than  one  might  dream, 
Like  the  rough  stone  it  is  ;  like  light 
Wherein  the  separate  hues  unite ; 
Like  many  things  in  one  that  meet 
To  make  the  whole  complete. 
Where  all  the  active  work  and  skill 
Moves  not  by  arbitrary  will. 
Where  exists  proportion  fair, 
The  child  must  feel  a  beauty  there. 
When  all  complete  and  polished  lies. 
He  feels  in  his  heart  a  glad  surprise. 
He  feels  the  charm  that  binds  in  one 
The  work  in  several  parts  begun. 
Behold,  then,  in  this  little  play 
A  world-wide  truth  set  free. 
Easily  may  a  symbol  teach 
What  thy  reason  may  not  reach — 
Living  is  the  perfect  Whole, 
Deeper  than  words  it  moves  the  soul."  * 

"  Early  the  child  divines  aright 
That  several  parts  in  one  whole  unite. 
Therefore  the  family  circle  show, 
Let  him  every  member  know."  * 


208  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

"  Whatever  singly  thou  hast  played 
May  in  one  charming  Whole  be  made. 
The  child  alone  delights  to  play, 
But  better  still  with  comrades  gay. 
The  single  flower  he  loves  to  view, 
Still  more  the  wreath  of  varied  hue. 
In  each  and  all  the  child  may  find 
The  least  within  the  Whole  combined."  * 

"  Silently  cherish  your  Baby's  dim  thought 
That  life  in  itself  is  as  Unity  wrought. 
Make  paths  through  which  he  may  feel  and  may  think 
That  of  this  great  Whole  he  too  is  a  link. 
Make  him  see  inner  things  through  outer  crust, 
And  to  the  inner  not  outer  things  trust. 
Let  him  feel  sure,  though  apart  things  may  stand, 
Life  has  its  Unity,  inner  and  grand ; 
That  each  thing,  though  soundless  it  be  to  the  ear, 
A  message  can  give  emblematic  but  clear ; 
And  all  who  will  follow  this  language  aright 
Walk  a  Life-pathway  still,  joyful,  and  bright."  t 

"  To  bind  together  what  stands  apart. 
Let  your  child  in  play  discover  the  art. 
And  exercise  the  manly  skill 
To  span  the  space  at  his  own  will."  * 

"  A  silent  thought  lies  dim  and  hid  in  Baby's  mind ; 
He's  not  alone  in  life ;  he's  one  amid  mankind."  f 

**  The  smallest  child  a  magnet  in  him  bears 
That  shows  him  how  life  binds  together  all."  f 

"  One  life  works  in  all  however  riven, 
Because  this  life  to  all,  one  God  has  given."  f 

"  Mother,  feel  it  deeply.    One  doth  watch 
When  all  in  somber  night  are  wrapped  in  sleep. 
Have  faith !  the  good  awaits  thy  careful  search. 
Will  from  all  fear  and  harm  the  children  keep. 
Truly  to  them  naught  better  canst  thou  give 
Than  the  true  feeling  they  in  One  Life  live."  * 


PATTERN  EXPERIENCES.  209 

"A  human  being  is  a  living  whole,  inner  and  unbroken  al- 
though connected  within  itself.  A  child  knows  itself  first  in 
this  wholeness  and  indivisibility  of  essence.  II  is,  moreover,  of 
the  highest  importance  that  he  should  know  life  first  in  its 
wholeness  and  unity, 

*'  Your  child,  dear  mother,  must  be  recognized  and  tended  as 
in  the  midst  of  a  life  that  is  all  connected  into  a  single  whole. 

"  How  could  our  earthly  life  be  long  enough  to  develop  our 
being  with  equal  perfection  in  its  all-sidedness  and  depth  ?  We 
must  recognize  our  ideal  selves  in  the  mirror  of  other  lives. 
Through  the  recognition  of  all  by  each  and  each  by  all,  hu- 
manity becomes  the  mirror  of  the  divine. 

"  To  rear  your  child  as  a  unity  in  itself,  in  unity  with  man 
and  nature,  but,  above  all,  in  unity  with  God,  the  Father  of  all 
— this,  dear  mother,  is  your  highest  duty,  your  deepest  joy. 

"  The  feeling  of  union  in  separation  and  of  separation — that 
is,  personality  in  union — is  the  esseace  of  conscience. 

"  Lead  your  child  from  the  fact  to  the  picture,  from  the  pic- 
ture to  the  symbol,  from  the  symbol  to  the  grasp  of  the  fact  as 
a  spiritual  whole.  Thus  will  be  developed  the  ideas  of  part  and 
whole,  of  the  individual  and  the  universal.  Educate  your  child 
in  this  manner,  and  at  the  goal  of  his  education  he  will  recog- 
nize himself  as  the  living  member  of  a  living  whole  and  will 
know  that  his  life  reflects  as  in  a  mirror — the  life  of  his  family, 
his  people,  humanity,  the  being,  life,  and  working  of  God  in 
all  and  through  all. 

"  To  find  or  create  a  bond  of  union  between  seemingly  op- 
posed and  even  antagonistic  objects  is  always  a  beneficent  deed. 
Mother,  early  awaken  in  your  child  the  love  of  reconciling  ac- 
tivity. Your  heart  teaches  you  what  bitter  pain  is  born  of 
apparently  insoluble  contradictions,  what  joy  springs  out  of 
unhoped-for  reconciliations.  .  .  .  Therefore,  identifying  himself 


210  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

with  the  carpenter,  let  your  child  build  the  reconciling  bridge, 
and  thus  through  a  uniting  act  gain  his  first  foreboding  of  the 
truth  that  in  himself  through  self -activity  he  will  find  the  solu- 
tion of  all  contradictions,  the  mediation  of  all  apparently  ir- 
reconcilable opposition.  Show  him  this  truth  again  in  your 
own  life,  and  above  all  in  the  mediatorial  life  and  teaching  of 
Him  who  on  earth  was  the  Carpenter's  Son.  Thus  shall  the 
visible  bridge  which  the  child  carpenter  builds  be  one  link  in 
the  chain  of  experiences  with  which  he  spans  the  gulf  between 
things  seen  and  things  unseen,  and  learns  to  recognize  in  the 
Carpenter's  Son  the  beloved  Son  of  Ood  and  the  All-Father,  the 
Mediator  between  him  and  man. 

"  From  the  strengthening  and  development  of  body,  limbs 
and  senses  rise  to  their  use ;  move  from  impressions  to  percep- 
tion ;  from  perception  to  attentive  observation  and  contempla- 
tion ;  from  the  recognition  of  particular  objects  to  their  rela- 
tions and  dependencies ;  from  the  healthy  life  of  the  body  to  the 
healthy  life  of  the  spirit ;  from  thought  immanent  in  experience 
to  pure  thinking.  Ascend  thus  from  sensation  to  thought,  from 
external  observation  to  internal  apprehension,  from  outer  com- 
bination to  inner  synthesis  ;  from  a  formal  to  a  vital  intellectual 
grasp  and  so  to  the  culture  of  the  Understanding ;  from  the 
observation  of  phenomena  to  the  recognition  of  their  ground  or 
cause,  and  hence  to  the  development  and  culture  of  life-grasping 
Reason,  By  such  procedure  will  be  formed  in  the  mind  of  the 
pupil  at  the  goal  of  his  education  the  transparent  and  clear 
soul-picture  of  each  particular  being,  including  himself — of  the 
great  Whole  to  which  all  particular  beings  belong  as  members, 
and  of  the  truth  that  the  particular  being  reflects  as  in  a  mirror 
the  life  of  the  Whole."* 

*  As  there  exist  two  literal  translations  of  the  Mutter-  und 
Koselieder,  I  have  ventured  to  make  my  translations  free,  in 
the  hope  that  Froebel's  ideas  may  gain  clearness  thereby. 


VIII. 

VORTICAL  EDUCATION. 


"  I  KNEW  a  very  wise  man  that  believed  that  if  a  man  were  permitted 
to  make  all  the  ballads,  he  need  not  care  who  should  make  the  laws 
of  a  nation." — Andrew  FUtcJier  of  Saltoun  {Letter  to  tlie  Marquis  of 
Montrose^  the  Earl  of  Eothes^  etc). 

"  Forms  ascend  in  order  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest.  The  lowest 
form  is  angular,  or  the  terrestrial  and  corporeal.  The  second  and 
next  higher  form  is  the  circular,  which  is  also  called  the  perpetual 
angular,  because  the  circumference  of  a  circle  is  a  perpetual  angle. 
The  form  above  this  is  the  spiral,  parent,  and  measure  of  circular 
forms;  its  diameters  are  not  rectilinear,  but  variously  circular,  and 
have  a  spherical  surface  for  center ;  therefore  it  is  called  the  perpetual 
circular.  The  form  above  this  is  the  vortical,  or  perpetual-spiral ;  next 
the  perpetual  vortical,  or  celestial;  last  the  perpetual-celestial  or 
spiritual." — Swedenborg''s  Doctrine  of  Forms  {as  given  in  Fmerson's 
Jiepresentative  Men), 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

VORTICAL  EDUCATION. 

Relapses  into  feticliism  are  recurrent  both 
among  peoples  and  among  individuals.  They  are 
not  confined  to  the  sphere  of  religion,  but  char- 
acterize all  decadent  movements,  whether  in 
theology,  politics,  literature,  or  education.  The 
churchman  makes  a  fetich  of  his  creed;  the 
statesman  of  some  bill  of  rights  or  national  con- 
stitution ;  the  man  of  letters  enshrines  an  idol  of 
rhetoric;  the  educator  falls  into  a  slavish  wor- 
ship of  traditional  usage.  Against  all  these  fe- 
tiches the  true  iconoclast  raises  his  protest  and 
exclaims  with  Carlyle,  "  Quit  your  paper  formu- 
las, equivalent  to  old  wooden  idols,  undivine  as 
they!'' 

The  kindergarten  has  its  own  peculiar  form 
of  fetich-worship.  It  consists  in  attributing  a 
magic  power  to  Froebel's  gifts  and  games,  and  in 
expecting  blocks  and  balls,  songs  and  gestures  to 
do  the  work  which  can  only  be  accomplished  by 


214  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

human  insight  and  devotion.  It  is  time  for  this 
f etichism  to  be  outgrown,  and  for  each  kinder- 
gartner  to  realize  that  the  merit  of  Froebel's  work 
lies  in  the  ideals  it  embodies ;  that  his  gifts  and 
songs  are  merely  instrumentalities  for  insinu- 
ating these  ideals  into,  or  rather  evolving  them 
from,  the  mind  of  the  child,  and  that,  like  all 
other  grades  of  education,  the  kindergarten  de- 
pends for  the  realization  of  its  aims  upon  the  in- 
sight and  eflBLciency  of  its  agents. 

Of  all  living  kindergartners,  probably  the  one 
who  uses  the  Mother-Play  to  the  greatest  advan- 
tage is  Frau  Henriette  Schrader,  of  Berlin.  The 
great-niece  of  Froebel,  a  member  of  his  last  class 
for  young  women  at  Blankenburg,  and  the  re- 
cipient of  many  of  his  most  valuable  and  sug- 
gestive letters,  she  is  deeply  imbued  with  his 
spirit,  and  is  quite  generally  recognized  as  the 
head  of  the  kindergarten  movement  in  North 
Germany.  The  following  account  of  a  visit  to 
the  kindergarten  connected  with  the  Pestalozzi- 
Froebel  House,  Berlin,  of  which  Frau  Schrader 
is  the  animating  spirit,  illustrates  her  method  of 
introducing  the  Froebel  songs.  The  article  from 
which  I  quote  is  contained  in  Barnard's  Kinder- 
garten and  Child  Culture  (p.  459),  and  is  entitled 
A  German  Kindergarten. 

^^This  institution  consisted  of  two  divisions 


VORTICAL  EDUCATION.  215 

of  the  kindergarten  proper,  and  of  the  transition 
class,  altogether  providing  for  children  from 
three  to  six  years  of  age.  What  struck  me  as 
especially  worthy  of  notice  was  the  unity  of 
plan  upon  which  the  education  during  these 
three  years  was  conducted.  Each  class  repre- 
sented a  year  of  age.  At  three  a  child  enters 
the  lowest  division.  Here  the  work  of  the 
kindergarten  teacher  was  eminently  that  of  a 
mother ;  yet  with  all  the  freedom  of  the  nursery 
there  was  a  thread  of  reason  running  through 
the  day's  proceedings.  These  were  not  desultory, 
but  sustained  by  some  central  thought,  which 
was  generally  taken  from  a  conversational  lesson 
over  the  picture-book,  or  else  from  the  present 
circumstance,  such  as  of  some  live  pet  which  had 
to  be  cared  for  and  fed. 

^^  The  first  quarter  of  an  hour  was  generally 
devoted  to  a  chat ;  but  as  the  children  were  many, 
and  the  family  type  was  upheld,  the  teacher  took 
the  children,  in  relays  of  six  or  seven  at  a  time, 
to  look  at  one  or  two  plates  in  Froebers  Mother's 
Book ;  the  rest  were  meanwhile  building  or  stick- 
laying,  or  playing  in  the  garden,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  an  assistant. 

'^For  example,  a  small  number  of  children  are 
seated  round  the  knee  of  their  motherly  friend, 
who  encourages  them  to  talk  freely  on  the  ex- 


216  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

periences  of  the  morning.  Who  brought  Mary 
to  the  kindergarten  this  morning  ?  Who  gave 
Annie  that  nice  white  pinafore  ?  The  recollec- 
tion of  the  loved  ones  at  home  is  stirred  np,  and 
every  child  contributes  some  little  fact  of  its 
family  history:  each  would  like  to  tell  that  it 
has  a  dear  mother,  a  father,  a  sister,  or  brother 
at  home.  This  idea  is  seized  and  worked  out  by 
the  motherly  teacher.  She  inquires,  relates,  and 
finally  promises  to  show  them  a  picture  of  a 
family  sitting  together  in  the  parlor.  The  pic- 
ture of  a  home  interior  is  shown.  The  height- 
ened pleasure  of  the  children  may  be  read  in 
their  eager  faces  as  they  peer  into  the  book  and 
recognize  the  different  members  of  the  family  in 
turn.  After  this  the  designs  all  round  the  cen- 
tral picture  are  looked  at,  and  the  children  notice 
how  there  are  father  and  mother  hares  in  the 
long  grass,  accompanied  by  their  little  ones; 
how  there  is  a  pigeon  family,  a  deer  family,  etc. 
The  children  return  again  to  the  central  picture 
of  the  family  group,  and  finally,  the  disposition 
having  been  created,  the  finger  game  is  intro- 
duced. 'Let  us  look  at  our  fingers;  are  they 
not  like  a  little  family  too  ?  See  how  happily 
they  live  together;  they  always  help  one  an- 
other. Shall  we  learn  a  little  song  about  the 
family  of  fingers  to-day  ? '    '  Yes,'  the  children 


VORTICAL  EDUCATION.  217 

wish  to  do  so ;  and,  imitating  the  action,  they  re- 
peat the  following  words : 

*  This  is  our  mother,  dear  and  good, 
This  is  our  father  of  merry  mood. 
This  our  big  brother  so  strong  and 
This  our  dear  sister  beloved  of  all ; 
This  is  the  baby  still  tender  and  small, 
And  this  the  whole  family  we  call ; 
See,  when  together,  how  happy  they  be 
Loving  and  working,  they  ever  agree.'  " 

The  ideal  kindergarten  course  extends  over 
three  years,  and  throughout  this  whole  period  the 
Mother-Play,  together  with  the  concrete  experi- 
ences which  it  interprets,  should  be  the  center 
of  interest  and  activity.  The  right  use  of  the 
book  will  make  it  the  nucleus  around  which  an 
otherwise  confused  mass  of  impressions  is  organ- 
ized into  a  living  whole.  Very  evidently  such 
a  result  can  not  be  achieved  by  mechanically 
repeating  plays  and  recurring  to  pictures.  Each 
play  is  a  germ  which  unfolds  with  the  unfolding 
of  the  child,  and  the  art  of  the  kindergartner 
consists  in  nurturing  this  germ  by  ever-fresh 
illustrations  of  the  ideal  which  is  its  life. 

We  have  witnessed  the  introduction  of  the 
family  song.  Let  us  now  indicate  the  lines  upon 
which  it  develops.  The  first  point  to  be  observed 
is  that  this  play  stands  in  organic  relation  to  a 
number  of  others.    Thus  the  play  of  the  Bird's 


218  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

Nest  is  connected  with  the  family,  through  its 
symbolic  presentation  of  mother-love ;  the  Hiding 
Game,  the  Cuckoo,  and  the  three  Songs  of  the 
Knights  also  deal  with  the  relationship  between 
mother  and  child.  Two  finger  plays  picture  the 
relationship  of  sisters  and  brothers;  The  Chil- 
dren on  the  Tower  shows  two  families  meeting 
for  social  intercourse ;  the  Carpenter  and  Joiner 
relate  to  the  house  which  shelters  the  family. 
Each  one  of  these  games  makes  possible  a  re- 
turn with  fresh  and  deeper  interest  to  the  play 
of  the  Family-Whole. 

But  this  is  not  all.  The  marginal  pictures 
surrounding  the  representation  of  the  human 
family  open  another  path  for  the  development 
of  the  ideal  of  family  life.  These  pictures  show 
a  marsh  family ;  an  air  family ;  several  water 
families ;  two  field  families ;  a  forest  family ; 
and  a  hive  family.  The  kindergartner  should 
procure  larger  pictures  illustrating  these  several 
types  of  life  and  make  them  the  basis  of  a  series 
of  games,  excursions,  talks,  and  stories.  She 
should  show  her  little  pupils  ant-hills  and  bee- 
hives. She  should  collect  different  kinds  of 
birds'  nests,  and  in  each  kind  lead  the  children 
to  observe  the  precautions  the  mother  bird  has 
taken  to  insure  the  safety  and  comfort  of  her 
nestlings.    When  one  reflects  on  the  care  which 


VORTICAL  EDUCATION.  219 

bees  and  ants  take  of  their  young,  both  in  the 
larva  and  pupa  states ;  when  one  thinks  of  the 
mimicry  through  which  the  bird  hides  her  nest 
from  enemies,  of  her  indefatigable  zeal  in  gather- 
ing hairs,  thistle-down,  or  feathers  to  line  it ;  of 
the  localities  in  which  she  places  it  for  the  sake 
of  safety  and  food ;  of  the  patience  with  which 
she  broods  over  her  eggs — one  realizes  that  there 
is  practically  no  end  to  the  observations  and 
talks  through  which  the  heart  of  the  child  may 
be  thrilled  with  presentiments  of  mother  love. 
Analogous  facts  may  be  shown  in  vegetable  life, 
and  the  wise  kindergartner  will  not  fail  to  call 
the  attention  of  her  children  to  the  devices 
through  which  different  plants  protect  their 
seed,  to  the  ingenious  means  adopted  to  secure 
its  dispersion,  and  to  the  food  laid  up  by  the 
mother  plant  for  the  nourishment  of  the  em- 
bryo. 

The  nest  of  the  oriole  is  sewed  firmly  to  twigs 
at  the  end  of  a  high  branch.  "Why  ?  The  nest 
of  the  humming  bird  is  covered  with  lichens  and 
looks  like  a  mere  knot  on  a  tree.  Why  ?  When 
the  weather  is  cold  ants  keep  their  larva  in- 
doors ?  Why  ?  The  dandelion  seed  is  attached 
to  a  fine  little  feather.  Why  ?  The  effect  of 
such  experiences  and  questions  is  twofold.    On 

the  one  hand,  the  child  forms  the  habit  of  ascent 
IG 


220  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

from  perceptible  facts  to  their  causal  implica- 
tions ;  and,  on  the  other,  through  recognition  of 
the  varying  manifestations  of  mother  love  and 
care  in  nature,  he  grows  increasingly  conscious 
of  the  love  and  care  his  own  mother  gives  to 
him.  "  The  use  of  natural  history,^'  says  Emer- 
son, "  is  to  give  us  aid  in  supernatural  history .'* 
The  consecration  of  nature  through  the  revela- 
tion of  spiritual  ideals  should  be  the  aim  of  all 
excursions  into  the  country,  all  nature  plays 
and  pictures,  and  all  study  of  the  ways  of  plants 
and  animals. 

In  addition  to  plays,  excursions,  talks,  and 
pictures,  the  kindergartner  may  use  carefully  se- 
lected stories  to  illustrate  the  ideal  she  is  seeking 
to  develop.  The  story  of  the  stork  who  would 
not  leave  her  nest,  though  the  chimney  wherein 
it  was  built  was  in  flames ;  the  beautiful  tale  of 
the  mother  who  rescued  her  child  from  wicked 
elves  by  holding  it  tight  in  her  arms  through  a 
series  of  hideous  and  terrifying  metamorphoses, 
may  be  mentioned  as  good  illustrations  of  mater- 
nal love.  The  child^s  duty  of  obedience  is  the 
theme  of  Little  Red  Riding  Hood ;  fraternal  devo- 
tion is  portrayed  in  the  story  of  the  Six  Brothers 
who  were  transformed  by  malice  into  crows  and 
restored  to  the  human  form  by  the  bravery  and 
devotion  of  their  sister.     As  the  children  mature 


VORTICAL  EDUCATION.  221 

they  should  hear  and  occasionally  learn  poems 
having  a  similar  ethical  content*;  and  they 
should  see  pictures  of  genuine  artistic  merit 
wherein  family  life,  relationships,  and  duties  are 
illustrated.  Last  of  all,  they  may  learn  through 
story  and  picture  of  the  one  perfect  mother  and 
of  the  one  ideal  child  "  who  was  subject  to  his 
parents  in  all  things,^^  and  who,  growing  in 
stature  and  wisdom,  grew  also  in  favor  with 
God  and  with  man.f 

*  Misunderstandings  are  so  likely  to  occur  that  it  may  not 
be  superfluous  to  state  that  I  am  not  recommending  these 
stories  and  poems  for  children  of  only  three  or  four  years  of 
age.  In  most  kindergartens  there  are  children  six  and  even 
seven  years  old.  For  the  younger  children,  the  best  stories  I 
know  are  Ida  Seele's. 

f  It  may  be  interesting  in  connection  with  Froebel's  Family 
Song  to  take  a  peep  into  the  family  life  at  Keilhau.  I  there- 
fore translate  part  of  a  letter  written  by  Froebel  to  his  friend 
Barop,  and  describing  the  way  in  which  the  little  community, 
poor  in  all  the  world  can  give,  but  rich  in  that  love  and  con- 
fidence the  world  can  never  take  away,  celebrated  the  birthday 
of  its  head. 

"  In  the  midst  of  our  trouble  "  (so  begins  the  letter)  "  I  sup- 
posed the  21st  of  April  would,  of  course,  pass  unnoticed,  but  you 
shall  see  how  greatly  I  was  mistaken.  About  noonday  our  young- 
est scholars,  who  had  just  had  a  lesson  on  flowers  with  Midden- 
dorff,  brought  me  a  beautiful  wreath,  in  the  center  of  which  was 
a  rosy  apple.  From  my  dear  wife  I  received  three  budding  twigs, 
one  of  beech,  one  of  linden,  one  of  oak,  with  a  touching  note 
explaining  what  her  gift  symbolized.  Later,  upon  entering  the 
sitting  room,  I  found  upon  the  table  Langethal's  present,  an 
essay  on  The  Hebrews,  Greeks,  and  Romans,  the  Leading  Na- 


222  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

The  salient  idea  of  each  dramatic  play  may 
also  be  illustrated  in  the  gift  exercises.  This 
procedure  is  of  great  importance,  yet  liable  to 
abuse.    It  is  a  cardinal  point  with  Froebel  that 

tions  of  Antiquity,  or  the  Typical  Representatives  of  the  Life 
of  Humanity  in  the  Boyhood  of  the  Race.  The  essay  was  placed 
within  an  exquisite  wreath  woven  by  Ernestine  (Mrs.  Langethal), 
"  Touched  to  the  heart  by  so  much  love  and  kindness,  I  sat,  in 
the  afternoon,  wrapped  in  grateful  and  happy  thought,  when  a 
noise  in  the  hall  announced  the  arrival  of  visitors.  It  was  the 
wife  and  daughters  of  my  dear  brother,  whom,  in  honor  of  my 
birthday,  my  good  wife  had  invited  to  spend  the  evening  with 
us.  I  tried  to  run  up-stairs  to  put  on  a  clean  collar  and  cuffs, 
but  Albertine  (Mrs.  Middendorff)  stopped  me  on  the  way.  Her 
angel  daughter  was  in  her  arms,  and  the  lovely  little  cherub 
held  out  to  me  a  fragrant  bouquet,  around  the  stem  of  which 
was  wrapped  a  strip  of  white  paper,  on  which  were  written  the 
following  lines : 

" '  Can  we  go  out  to-day,  mother  my  dear  ? ' 

*  Nay,  love,  it  rains ;  bring  thy  playthings  here  I 
Where  wouldst  thou,  little  darling,  go  ? ' 

*  Where  all  the  loveliest  blossoms  blow.' 

*  And  what  wouldst  thou  do  with  the  blossoms  sweet?* 
*rd  lay  them  all ^at  his  gracious  feet.' 

*  At  whose,  my  little  one  kind  and  dear  ? ' 

*  His  who  was  born  this  day  of  the  year  ! ' 

*  Ah,  little  darling,  stay  thou  here  I 

Our  garden  shall  make  thee  lovely  cheer : 
There  color  and  fragrance  breathe  and  blow, 
And  heaven's  pure  air  shall  fill  thee  so.' 

*  Mother,  oh,  see  now  my  garland  fine  ! 

In  sunshine  I'll  lay  it  before  his  shrine.' " 

Translation  hy  Mrs.  Laura  Richards, 

"  With  what  feelings  I  joined  the  circle  of  loving  friends 
you  can  readily  imagine.    Our  precious  little  baby  was  the  pure 


VORTICAL  EDUCATION.  223 

the  child  reproduce  his  experiences  in  varied 
forms.  Such  reproduction,  however,  should  be 
original,  and  the  habit  of  preparing  illustrations 
for  the  children  to  copy  can  not  be  too  strongly- 
condemned.  Who  would  like  to  make  something 
for  baby  ?  Shall  we  build  houses  for  our  finger- 
families  ?  Shall  we  make  furniture  for  the  sit- 
ting room,  the  dining  room,  the  nursery  ?  Such 
are  examples  of  the  questions,  through  which  it 
is  permissible  to  direct  the  energies  of  the  chil- 
dren into  definite  channels.  Add  to  these  sug- 
gestions the  participation  of  the  kindergartner  in 
each  productive  exercise — a  minimum  of  help  in 
ordering  the  separate  achievements  of  the  little 

and  living  bond  which  united  our  hearts  more  closely  than  ever 
during  that  golden  afternoon.  Toward  twilight  I  proposed  that 
we  should  all  walk  to  the  Kolm  "  (the  plateau  of  a  neighboring 
mountain,  always  a  favorite  resort  with  Froebel  and  his  friends). 
**  What  was  my  astonishment  to  find  this  sanctum  beautifully 
decorated  and  its  seats  covered  with  velvet  moss  I  I  need  not  tell 
you  that  this  charming  surprise  had  been  prepared  by  our  dear 
Middendorff  with  the  help  of  our  pupils.  Ferdinand  and  Wil- 
liam had  also  decorated  the  space  around  our  favorite  beech 
tree  as  well  as  the  path  leading  to  it.  Whether  we  had  music 
I  know  not,  but  it  seems  to  me  I  yet  hear  the  voice  of  singing, 
and  that  the  echoes  of  that  harmonious  evening  will  never  die 
out  of  my  soul." 

"  Thus,"  comments  Wichard  Lange,  "  did  these  innocent  old 
boys  riot  in  love'  and  friendship,  and  revel  in  the  simplest  gifts 
of  nature,  while  creditors  threatened  them,  the  world  despised 
them»  and  actual  want  stared  them  in  the  face." — Aus  FroeheVs 
Lebe7i,  pp.  150-152, 


224  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

ones  into  a  logical  series,  and  a  slight  pressure  in 
the  direction  of  enabling  each  child  to  multiply 
his  own  ideas  by  the  ideas  of  all  the  other  chil- 
dren, and  the  extreme  limit  of  interference  in  the 
process  of  free  creation  is  reached.* 

The  All-gone  Song  and  the  play  of  Grass-mow- 
ing initiate  another  series  of  games.  The  point 
of  departure  for  this  series  is  the  cup  of  milk. 
The  child  looks  into  the  cup,  to  find  the  milk  all 
gone.  Where  has  it  gone  ?  What  will  it  do  ? 
How  do  we  grow  strong  ?  Such  are  the  questions 
asked  and  answered  in  the  little  song  whose 
theme  is  the  final  cause  of  food-taking.  This 
play,  pointing  forward  to  ideal  ends,  is  re-en- 
forced by  the  Grass-mowing,  which  rehearses 
the  process  through  which  milk  is  obtained  and 
is  interpreted  by  a  picture  showing  mother  and 
child ;  a  cup  of  milk ;  the  milkmaid  and  the 
cow ;  the  barn  where  hay  is  kept ;  the  farmer's 
wagon  loaded  with  hay  en  route  for  the  barn; 
a  man  mowing  grass ;  and  a  child  helping  him. 
The  picture  should  be  placed  before  the  children, 
and  its  separate  features  discovered  by  them. 
When  its  details  are  mastered  the  kindergartner 
may  weave  them  into  a  whole  after  the  pattern 
of  the  story  of  The  Old  Woman  and  her  Pig : 

*  I  do  not  mean  to  imply  that  there  should  never  be  a  dic- 
tated exercise.    They  should,  however,  be  infrequent. 


VORTICAL  EDUCATION.  225 

"Cow,  COW,  give  milk,  that  baby  may  have 
his  supper  to-night/' 

"  Yes,  but  first  you  must  give  me  hay/' 

"Barn,  barn,  give  hay,  then  cow  will  give 
milk,  and  baby  shall  have  his  supper  to-night/' 

"Yes,  but  first  I  must  be  filled/' 

"  Farmer,  farmer,  fill  barn,  then  barn  will  give 
hay,  then  cow  will  give  milk,  and  baby  shall 
have  his  supper  to-night/' 

So  runs  the  story  through  the  series  of  acts 
leading  back  from  the  cup  of  milk  to  the  sun- 
shine and  the  shower :  Shine  sun  ;  fall  rain ;  grow 
grass;  mow,  Peter;  farmer  fill  the  barn;  barn 
give  hay ;  eat,  cow ;  milk  away,  MoUie,  and  baby 
shall  have  his  supper  to-night. 

The  story  of  The  Bowl  of  Milk  may  also  be 
told  in  rhyme.  The  following  version,  after  the 
model  of  The  House  that  Jack  Built,  was  kindly 
written  for  me  by  Miss  Emilie  Poulsson : 

THE  RHYME  OF  THE  BOWL  OF  MILK. 

Oh  I  here  is  the  Milk,  so  sweet  and  white, 
All  ready  for  dear  little  Baby. 

This  is  the  Mother  who,  with  delight, 
Poured  into  the  bowl  the  milk  so  white, 
All  ready  for  dear  little  Baby. 

This  is  the  Milkmaid,  who  worked  with  a  will 
Her  pail  with  the  cow's  good  milk  to  fill, 
To  take  to  the  Mother,  who,  with  delight, 
Poured  into  the  bowl  the  milk  so  white, 
All  ready  for  dear  little  Baby. 


226  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

This  is  the  Cow  that  gave  milk  each  day 
To  Molly  the  Milkmaid,  who  worked  with  a  will 
Her  pail  with  the  cow's  good  milk  to  fill, 
To  take  to  the  Mother  who,  with  delight, 
Poured  into  the  bowl  the  milk  so  white, 
All  ready  for  dear  little  Baby. 

This  is  the  dry  and  sweet-smelling  Hay, 
That  was  fed  to  the  Cow  that  gave  milk  each  day 
To  Molly  the  Milkmaid,  who  worked  with  a  will 
Her  pail  with  the  cow's  good  milk  to  fill. 
To  take  to  the  Mother  who,  with  delight, 
Poured  into  the  bowl  the  milk  so  white, 
All  ready  for  dear  little  Baby. 

This  is  the  Grass  (in  the  field  it  grew, 
Helped  by  the  sunshine  and  rain  and  dew) — 
The  grass  that  was  dried  into  sweet-smelling  Hay 
And  fed  to  the  Cow  that  gave  milk  each  day 
To  Molly  the  Milkmaid,  who  worked  with  a  will 
Her  pail  with  the  cow's  good  milk  to  fill, 
To  take  to  the  Mother  who,  with  delight, 
Poured  into  the  bowl  the  milk  so  white. 
All  ready  for  dear  little  Baby. 

This  is  the  Mower,  who  worked  at  the  farm , 
Swinging  his  scythe  with  his  strong,  right  arm. 
Mowing  the  fields  of  Grass  (that  grew, 
Helped  by  the  sunshine  and  rain  and  dew) — 
The  grass  that  was  dried  into  sweet-smelling  Hay 
And  fed  to  the  Cow  that  gave  milk  each  day 
To  Molly  the  Milkmaid,  who  worked  with  a  will 
Her  pail  with  the  cow's  good  milk  to  fill^ 
To  take  to  the  Mother  who,  with  delight. 
Poured  into  the  bowl  the  milk  so  white. 
All  ready  for  dear  little  Baby. 

When  the  children  have  become  familiar  with 
the  connected  activities  upon  which  depends  the 


VORTICAL  EDUCATION.  227 

cup  of  milk,  their  attention  may  again  be  direct- 
ed to  the  picture  of  Grass-mowing,  and  they  may 
be  led  to  notice  in  the  foreground  the  two  little 
girls  who  are  sitting  under  opposite  trees  making 
dandelion  chains.  ''  What/'  asks  the  kindergart- 
ner,  "  are  these  children  doing  ?  Shall  we,  too, 
make  a  chain  ? "  Such  questions  will  lead  up 
to  a  more  conscious  connection  of  the  numerous 
links  in  the  chain  of  causal  energy,  and  this  final 
rehearsal  of  the  supper-producing  process  may 
end  with  thanks  to  sun,  rain,  grass,  mower, 
farmer,  milkmaid,  cow,  and,  most  of  all,  to  the 
mother  who  sets  in  motion  the  long  train  of 
service. 

The  reader  will  not  require  to  be  told  that  I 
have  summed  up  the  results  of  many  repetitions 
of  the  game  of  Grass-mowing,  nor  yet  that  this 
play,  like  that  of  The  Family,  is  organically  re- 
lated to  many  others  (Farmer,  Miller,  Baker, 
etc.),  and  should  receive  varied  illustration  from 
stories,  poems,  artistic  pictures,  and  exercises 
with  the  kindergarten  gifts.  It  may,  however, 
be  well  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  rep- 
resentation in  this  and  many  other  games  de- 
velops with  the  unfolding  of  the  idea.  The  little 
child  should  at  first  represent  only  the  mow- 
ing; later  he  may  add  the  milking,  and  still 
later  he  should  make  this  game  the  center  of  a 


228  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

circular  series,  illustrating  all  its  collateral  ideas. 
Inexperienced  kindergartners  fall  into  many  er- 
rors in  playing  FroebeFs  games.  Often  they 
ignore  the  gymnastic  element ;  often  they  make 
it  so  prominent  as  to  take  all  life  out  of  the  play. 
Sometimes  they  introduce  movements  beyond  the 
child's  power  of  execution,  or  whose  dramatic 
motive  he  fails  to  apprehend;  sometimes  they 
persistently  restrict  the  representation  to  a  single 
activity,  and  thus  make  it  formal  and  mechan- 
ical ;  sometimes  they  allow  the  game  to  be  played 
haphazard,  losing  thereby  the  help  of  the  mimetic 
art  in  the  unfolding  of  its  idea,  and  the  physical 
benefit  of  wisely  ordered  and  varied  exercise. 
These  manifold  errors  can  be  avoided  only  by 
insight  into  the  rational  content  of  each  particu- 
lar game  and  clear  apprehension  of  the  varied 
instrumentalities  through  which  this  content 
may  be  developed  in  the  consciousness  of  the 
child.* 

In  the  examples  thus  far  given  I  have  indi- 
cated the  manner  of  using  the  Mother-Play  in 
the  kindergarten.     Even  more  important,  how- 

*  It  is  hoped  that  these  simple  illustrations  of  the  use  of 
Froebel's  plays  may  help  to  correct  that  too  common  perver- 
sion and  exaggeration  of  his  symbolic  method  against  which. 
Mrs.  Hailmann  uttered  a  timely  protest  at  the  recent  (July, 
1893)  International  Educational  Congress  in  Chicago. 


VORTICAL  EDUCATION.  229 

ever,  than  its  use  in  the  kindergarten  is  its  use 
in  the  nursery,  and  I  shall  therefore  endeavor 
to  illustrate  through  the  single  game  of  The 
Pigeon  House  Froebel's  conception  of  the  ideal 
intercourse  of  mother  and  child. 

Many  mothers  live  for  their  children ;  fewer 
live  wiili  their  children  ;  fewer  still  permit  their 
children  to  live  with  them.  Yet  nothing  is  more 
certain  than  that  doing  for  children  when  disso- 
ciated from  living  with  them  breeds  selfishness 
and  fails  to  awaken  love.  Human  hearts  can  be 
knit  together  only  by  common  experiences  and 
sympathies,  and  every  mother  would  do  well  to 
adopt  as  her  motto  the  words  of  Luther  :  "  God, 
that  he  might  draw  man  to  him,  became  man ; 
we,  if  we  would  draw  children  to  us,  must  be- 
come children.^^ 

That  mother  and  child  should  have  a  common 
life  does  not,  however,  imply  that  they  should 
always  be  together,  and  no  sensible  person  will 
accept  the  sentimental  theory  that  the  mother 
should  be  her  child's  sole  and  constant  com- 
panion. 

One  fatal  objection  to  this  theory  is  its  impos- 
sibility. Mothers  are  not  only  mothers ;  they  are 
likewise  wives,  housewives,  members  of  society, 
and  individuals  with  minds  of  their  own  to  be 
nourished  and  developed.    But  even  if  the  ideal 


230  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

described  were  practically  possible,  its  realiza- 
tion would  be  fatal  in  its  influence  upon  the 
child,  for  it  ignores  one  of  the  profoundest  of 
psychologic  truths,  the  truth  which  (borrowing 
the  words  from  Rosenkranz  as  he  from  Hegel). 
I  have  called  estrangement  {Selbst-entfremdung 
=  self-estrangement),  and  return ;  the  truth  to 
which  Froebel  never  tires  of  calling  attention 
under  the  name  of  ^^  Mediation  of  Opposites.^^ 
This  truth  has  varied  aspects,  and  throws  light 
upon  many  of  the  most  mysterious  phenomena 
of  nature  and  of  human  life.  Adequately  to 
explain  Froebel,  a  whole  volume  should  be  de- 
voted to  its  elucidation  and  illustration.  For  the 
present,  however,  I  must  restrict  myself  to  the 
statement  that  it  furnishes  the  clew  to  a  large 
number  of  the  songs  in  the  Mother-Play,  and 
the  key  to  Froebel's  conception  of  education  as 
a  practical  art.  In  the  Falling-falling  game, 
Froebel  gives  his  first  hint  of  the  truth  that 
spiritual  union  is  realized  through  separation. 
During  the  first  weeks  of  life  the  infant  has  no 
consciousness  of  its  own  distinct  being.  It  is,  in 
a  physical  sense,  one  with  its  mother,  and  shows 
in  many  ways  that  it  is  affected  by  her  chang- 
ing states  of  mind  and  body.  Gradually,  how- 
ever, the  baby  learns  to  sit,  creep,  stand,  walk, 
notice,  play,  and  assert  its  own  will.    How  shall 


VORTICAL  EDUCATION.  231 

the  mother  respond  to  these  varying  manifesta- 
tions of  a  life  distinct  from  her  own  ?  Has  not 
instinct  taught  her  that  in  the  crescive  feeling 
of  independent  existence  she  must  find  the  means 
of  binding  her  child  in  deeper  bonds  of  love  and 
sympathy  ?  The  little  game.  See  how  Baby  Falls, 
is  played  in  every  nursery.  The  child,  lying  on 
a  soft  pillow,  is  gently  raised  by  the  mother  into 
a  sitting  position,  and  then  allowed  to  fall  back. 
At  first  he  is  frightened,  but  gradually  he  begins 
to  enjoy  the  play ;  and  when  he  has  learned  to 
fall  without  any  feeling  of  alarm,  we  may  be 
sure  that  the  germs  of  faith  have  budded  in  his 
soul.  Later,  he  will  jump  from  a  high  mantel 
into  his  mother's  arms,  and  seem  never  to  tire  of 
the  fun.  With  increasing  consciousness  of  his 
distinct  selfhood  comes  the  desire  to  hide  him- 
self, and  he  delights  in  games  like  the  third  play 
of  the  Knights,  wherein  strangers  are  repre- 
sented as  wishing  to  carry  off  the  child,  whom 
the  mother  stoutly  refuses  to  give  up,  and  even 
conceals  from  those  who  would  seize  her  treas- 
ure. No  person  who  remembers  his  childhood 
will  need  to  be  told  that  many  of  our  most  popu- 
lar traditional  games  are  freighted  with  a  simi- 
lar motive. 

Froebel  asks  of  mothers  only  to  universalize 
the  lesson  taught  by  instinct.    If  the  infant  needs 


232  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

to  fall  from  the  mother^s  arms  in  order  to  trust 
the  mother's  love,  does  not  the  older  child  need 
to  be  sometimes  separated  from  her  that  he  may- 
know  the  joy  of  return  to  her  ?  Does  not  the  boy- 
need  other  companions,  if  only  for  the  sake  of 
learning  that  none  of  them  can  replace  the  one 
dearest  companion  ?  Does  not  the  youth  need 
absence  from  home,  and  the  experiences  of  board- 
ing-school and  college  in  order  to  realize  the 
sweetness  of  home  ?  Does  not  each  man  need 
foreign  travel  to  bring  him  spiritually  near  to 
his  own  country  ?  Does  not  the  student  need  to 
sink  himself  in  the  past  that  he  may  rise  into 
adequate  consciousness  of  the  present  ?  Did  not 
the  prodigal  son  need  the  journey  into  a  far  coun- 
try, the  riotous  living,  and  the  husks  fit  only  for 
swine,  to  stir  his  dull  soul  with  the  sense  of  his 
father's  love  ?  Does  not  the  whole  striving,  as- 
piring, sinning,  suffering,  repenting  human  race 
need  the  discipline  of  evil  to  fit  it  for  the  Father's 
house  above  ?  Such  are  a  few  of  the  truths  which 
lie  coiled  up  in  the  principle  of  estrangement  and 
return.  Froebel  deals  with  those  applications  of 
the  principle  which  fall  within  the  scope  of  early 
education.  I  have  indicated  the  steps  through 
which  he  seeks  to  deepen  the  inner  unity  of 
mother  and  child.  It  is  only  necessary  to  allude 
to  The  Fishes,  The  Child  and  Moon,  The  Boy  and 


VORTICAL  EDUCATION.  233 

Moon,  and  The  Light-Bird  on  the  Wall,  to  waken 
in  the  mind  of  the  kindergartner  consciousness 
of  the  fact  that  in  these  plays  he  endeavors  to 
aid  the  soul  in  its  ascent  from  a  physical  to  a 
spiritual  union  with  nature.  As  primitive  men 
dreamed  of  heroes  who  mounted  to  the  "sky 
country"  and  built  towers  which  aspired  to 
reach  unto  heaven,  so  the  baby  tries  to  grasp  the 
moon,  and  the  boy  thinks  he  may  climb  to  it  by 
a  ladder.  As  the  hope  that  built  Babel  was  ful- 
filled at  Pentecost,  so  the  impulse  which  moves 
the  child  to  grasp  for  the  sun  and  moon  is  satis- 
fied when  he  learns  the  truths  that  "impara- 
dise  the  mind,"  and  from  the  physical  heaven 
that  lies  about  infancy,  passes  into  the  true 
heaven  which  is  "not  in  space  nor  turns  on 
poles." 

In  every  attempt  to  apply  practically  the  in- 
sight into  estrangement  and  return,  the  impor- 
tant thing  to  remember  is  that  alienation  is 
always  means  to  an  end.  The  child  who  hides 
too  long  in  play  may  do  something  which  will 
create  the  desire  to  hide  in  earnest.  The  boy, 
whose  adventures  at  school,  in  the  field,  on  the 
playground,  are  not  poured  into  his  mother's  ear 
and  interpreted  by  her  sympathy,  will  be  led 
away  from  her  instead  of  being  drawn  nearer 
to  her  by  these  alien  experiences.    The  student 


234  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

may  -loso'  himself  so  completely  in  the  past  that 
he  can'  never  find  himself  in  the  present ;  the 
traf eler  may  wander  too  long  in  foreign  lands 
and  thus  kill  his  love  of  country ;  the  sinner 
may  get  frozen  with  Lucifer  in  the  circle  of  ice 
instead  of  returning  with  the  prodigal  to  the 
light  and  warmth  of  the  Father^s  house.  Sepa- 
ration for  union,  estrangement  for  return,  is  the 
watchword  of  education,  and  the  impetus  through 
which  individual  life  widens  from  a  mere  point 
to  infinitude. 

The  play  of  The  Pigeon  House  is  interesting 
as  one  of  the  series  of  games  wherein  Froebel 
points  out  to  the  mother  how,  by  entering  into 
the  child^s  life,  she  may  knit  him  to  her  in  love 
and  sympathy.  The  child  shall  see  his  home  in 
the  Dove-Cote,  and  himself  in  the  forth-flying 
and  home-returning  doves.  The  first  step  in  the 
process  is  dramatic  representation,  and  so  the 
left  arm  is  raised  to  show  the  pillar  on  which  the 
pigeon  house  stands ;  the  right  hand  makes  the 
house,  and  the  fingers  the  flying  birds.  Accom- 
panying the  representation  the  mother  sings : 

"  I  open  wide  my  dove-cote  door, 
The  pigeons  fly  out  and  away  they  soar ; 
They  fly  to  green  field  and  spreading  tree, 
Where  little  birds  are  glad  to  be ; 
And  when  they  come  back  to  rest  at  night 
Again  I  close  my  pigeon  house  tight." 


VORTICAL  EDUCATION.     \^^       ^^''^%'^J 

Tlie  picture   illustrating  this  play  ^Sfeoi^"^    ^^> 
pigeon  house  and  a  sparrow  house ;  birds  hk*    ^^ 
from    and    returning   to   each ;    a  mother  h 
perched  on  a  tree  beside  her  nest ;    a  mother 
with  her  baby  and  a  somewhat  older  child  going 
to  the  fields ;  two  children  returning  from  the 
fields  ;  in  the  background  the  home,  in  the  fore- 
ground a  snail  creeping  out  of  his  shell,  and 
a  snake  crawling  into  its  hole.    Thus  outgoing 
and  incoming  life  is  the  burden  of  the  whole 
picture. 

"Behold,"  says  Froebel,  "the  child  that  can 
scarcely  keep  himself  erect,  and  that  can  walk 
only  with  the  greatest  care ;  he  sees  a  twig  or  a 
bit  of  straw ;  painfully  he  secures  it,  and,  like  the 
young  bird  in  spring,  carries  it,  as  it  were,  to  his 
nest.  .  .  .  The  force  of  the  rain  has  washed  out  of 
the  sand  small,  smooth,  bright  pebbles ;  quickly 
the  little  one  gathers  them  and  tries  to  build  with 
them.  Is  he  not  in  a  deeper  sense  collecting  ma- 
terial for  his  future  life-building  ? ''  Moreover, 
is  not  the  child  here,  too,  father  of  the  man  ;  and 
the  contrast  of  outgoing  and  incoming  life  shown 
in  the  picture  of  the  Pigeon  House  a  type  of  all 
human  experience  ?  Projecting  ourselves  in 
deeds  ;  beholding  ourselves  mirrored  therein ; 
groping  our  painful  way  through  the  maze  of 
particular  facts;  rising  therefrom  to  the  vision 
17 


236  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

of  the  whole;  breaking  ourselves  up  into  dis- 
jointed fragments  of  feeling,  thought,  and  will ; 
collecting  ourselves  together  out  of  these  frag- 
ments into  the  unity  of  self -consciousness — such 
are  the  alternations  of  energy  through  which  the 
soul  attains  at  last  divine  illumination,  and  is 
consecrated  to  divine  service. 

One  more  feature  of  the  Pigeon-House  picture 
deserves  mention,  because  it  is  common  to  most 
of  the  illustrations  in  the  Mother-Play.  Behind 
the  mother,  who  with  her  little  ones  is  going 
to  the  field,  sits  another  mother  who  is  teach- 
ing her  baby  the  Pigeon-House  game.  Thus 
the  child  not  only  reflects  his  experience  in  his 
play,  but  beholds  this  reflection  mirrored  in  the 
picture.  That  this  naive  process  of  mirroring 
life  is  in  accord  with  the  method  of  all  true 
poets  no  student  of  literature  will  need  to  be 
reminded. 

Returning  to  the  mother  at  play  with  her 
child,  we  observe  that  the  refrain  of  the  song 
imitates  the  cooing  of  doves.  What,  asks  the 
mother,  are  the  little  doves  talking  about  ?  Are 
ihey  not  telling  each  other  what  they  have  seen 
in  the  meadows  and  gardens  ?  Now  you  shall 
be  my  little  dove,  and  tell  me  all  you  have  seen 
and  done  while  you  have  been  away  from  me. 

Children  love  to  recount  their  experiences,  for 


VORTICAL  EDUCATION.  237 

in  telling  what  they  have  seen  and  done  they  take 
possession  of  it.*  How  the  mother  may  aid  this 
effort  to  master  experience  Froebel  indicates 
in  the   following  conversation :    The  child  has 

*  At  the  age  of  twenty  months  a  child  is  not  keen  to  hear 
stories  and  fables,  which  he  would  not  understand ;  but  he 
delights  in  recounting  his  own  experiences.  A  little  girl  of 
this  age,  whenever  her  mother  took  her  out  with  her,  used  to 
relate  to  her  father  in  the  evening  all  that  she  and  her  mother 
had  seen  and  done.  "  We  went  out  under  the  large  trees  of  the 
Luxembourg ;  the  dog  was  with  us ;  he  kept  running  around 
the  perambulator  of  a  little  girl,  and  every  now  and  then  he 
came  up  and  licked  her  hands  and  face.  But  the  dog  was  very 
naughty ;  he  ate  the  little  girl's  cake.  Mamma  scolded  the  dog 
well,  and  drove  him  away  with  her  blue  umbrella,  which  made 
Mary  laugh  just  when  she  was  beginning  to  cry.  Then  a  little 
boy  named  Joseph  came  and  sat  on  a  bench  by  Mary.  He  was 
bigger  than  little  Mary,  but  he  was  very  polite,  and  he  is  very 
fond  of  the  little  girl.  He  let  her  take  his  balloon,  and  he  did 
not  hurt  her  doll ;  then  he  and  Mary  jumped  about  together, 
but  the  little  boy  fell  down  and  made  a  bump  on  his  forehead. 
He  cried  very  much,  and  the  little  girl  cried  too,  because  he  was 
hurt ;  and  then  we  walked  a  long,  long  way  to  the  farthest 
bench  with  Madame  X.,  who  loves  baby  very  much.  Madame 
X.  said  to  baby :  *  When  are  you  coming  to  see  me  ?  There 
are  some  beautiful  apricots  in  the  garden,  and  the  birds  in  the 
aviary  are  always  very  pretty  and  very  happy ;  they  often  ask 
where  little  Mary  is,  saying,  '  Coui,  coui,  coui,'  etc."  And  dur- 
ing this  recital,  often  interrupted  by  the  kisses  and  pettings 
of  her  mother,  or  by  bursts  of  laughter  and  short  remarks  from 
her  father,  the  little  girl,  all  eyes  and  ears,  enacted  all  the  va- 
rious emotions  which  the  events  called  forth,  gesticulating  with 
arms,  feet,  and  head,  and  mimicking  the  cries  of  the  animals 
she  was  talking  about.  She  would  become  half  lost  in  the  nar- 
rative, or  rather  in  dramatizing  it ;  and  the  habit  of  recounting 
these  true  stories  prepared  her  for  following  the  fictitious  ones 


238  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

spent  the  afternoon  out  of  doors.  He  is  full  of 
emotions  born  of  what  he  has  seen,  but  he  can 
not  bind  and  hold  his  fleeting  memories.  The 
mother  comes  to  his  help.  By  a  few  well-di- 
rected questions  she  finds  out  that  he  has  seen 
many  kinds  of  birds,  likewise  bees,  beetles,  and 
butterflies.    Then  she  asks  : 

"  Where  did  you  see  the  pigeons  and  chick- 
ens ?^^ 

"  In  the  yard,  mother ;  they  were  picking  up 
the  grains  of  corn  and  eating  them.  The  little 
chickens  ran  so  fast  when  they  found  anything, 
or  when  the  cock  called  them  because  he  had 
found  something  for  them.  But  the  pigeons 
could  not  run  so  fast,  nor  the  ravens  which  I 
saw  in  the  field.  One  raven  ran  almost  as  a 
pigeon  runs,  and  one  black  pigeon  ran  so  that 
I  thought  it  was  a  raven.  But  the  ravens  and 
magpies  could  hop,  and  you  will  never  believe 
how  the  water- wagtails  and  sparrows  can  too; 
it  is  such  fun  to  see  them  hop  about  on  their 
little  stiff  legs;  and  the  geese  and  ducks  too, 

"which  her  mother  invented  for  her,  suiting  them  gradually  to 
the  progressive  development  of  her  intelligence.  When  two 
years  old  she  could  not  exist  without  these  exciting  little  tales, 
and  she  used  to  say  several  times  a  day  to  her  mother:  "  Mamma, 
tale  about  dood  ittle  dal ;  mamma,  tale  about  ittle  dal." — First 
Three  Years  of  Childhood,  Bernard  Ferez,  translated  by  Alice 
M.  Christie,  pp.  96,  97, 


VORTICAL  EDUCATION.  239 

how  they  swim  in  the  water  and  dive !  But  only 
think !  they  could  fly  too.  They  flew  straight 
over  my  head,  away  to  the  pond.  I  was  so 
frightened !  '* 

"  My  child,  why  should  the  geese  and  ducks 
not  fly  ?  They  are  birds,  just  as  doves  and  hens, 
swallows  and  sparrows,  larks  and  finches  are 
birds.^^ 

*'  Mother,  are  the  pigeons  and  hens  really 
birds  ? '' 

"  Have  they  not  feathers  ?  Have  they  not 
wings  ^  Have  they  not  two  legs,  as  all  birds 
have?^^ 

"But  the  pigeons  live  in  their  holes  and  in 
the  pigeon  house,  and  chickens  don't  fly.'' 

"  Chickens  have  forgotten  how  to  fly,  because 
they  use  their  power  of  flying  so  little.  If  we  do 
not  want  to  forget  how  to  do  a  thing  we  must 
practice  it.  As  for  the  pigeons  who  live  in 
houses,  they  are  like  the  sparrows  and  swallows, 
who  are  certainly  birds,  though  they  live  in 
houses  and  under  roofs." 

"  Mother,  are  the  bees  and  beetles  and  butter- 
flies birds  too.  They  have  wings,  and  can  fly 
much  higher  than  the  ducks  and  hens  can." 

"  They  have  no  feathers  ;  they  build  no  little 
nests,  and  there  are  many  things  which  they  have 
not  and  which  birds  have.    They  are  animals,  it 


2:t0  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

is  true,  just  as  birds  are,  for  they  can  move  as 
they  like.  They  have  something,  too,  which 
birds  do  not  have.  Look  at  this  beetle,  look  at 
this  fly.  Each  has  a  notch  here,  and  another 
there.  These  notches  are  called  sections,  and  the 
creatures  themselves  are  called  insects."  * 

Helping  us  to  knowledge  is  binding  us  in 
sympathy.  Out  of  the  depths  of  his  satisfied 
heart  comes  the  child's  eager  cry,  ^*  O  mother, 
when  I  next  go  out  you  must  go  with  me ! " 

I  have  likened  the  unfolding  of  the  nursery 
songs  to  the  life  of  a  tree.  In  this  conversation 
we  see  the  branch  of  natural  history  shooting  out 
from  the  great  limb  of  sympathy  with  nature. 
In  relating  the  isolated  elements  of  her  child's 
experience  the  mother  necessarily  becomes  sci- 
entific. 

The  category  of  our  age  is  evolution,  and  the 
one  question  we  ask  of  each  object  is  how  it 
came  to  be.  Of  our  own  coming  to  be,  however, 
we  know  little  or  nothing.  To  most  of  us  the 
first  few  years  of  life  are  a  blank  in  memory. 
We  wake  to  consciousness  with   definite   feel- 


*  Mother's  Songs,  Games,  and  Stories,  translation  by  Frances 
and  Emily  Lord,  pp,  155,  156.  (I  have  made  a  few  unimportant 
changes.  The  thought  of  this  sentence  is  more  simply  and 
naively  expressed  in  the  original.  Kerb  =  notch ;  Kerbthiere 
=  notched  animals.) 


VORTICAL  EDUCATION.  241 

ings,  thoughts,  and  tendencies.  Whence  sprang 
the  feelings  2  How  grew  the  thoughts  ?  What 
fixed  the  tendencies  ?  We  ask  in  vain.  Over 
the  sources  of  life  roll  the  silent  waves  of  un- 
consciousness, and  memory  loses  itself  in  a  be- 
ginning when  "all  was  without  form  and  void, 
and  darkness  was  upon  the  face  of  the  deep.'' 

How  much  it  would  add  to  the  power  and 
beauty  of  our  lives  if  this  lost  connection  could 
be  at  least  partially  restored!  Should  we  not 
better  understand  what  we  are  if  we  knew  how 
we  came  to  be  ?  Might  not  a  wise  and  tender 
mother,  by  watching  her  child,  behold  the  dawn- 
ing of  his  conscious  life  ?  Might  she  not,  by  sa- 
credly guarding  in  her  heart  his  small  experi- 
ences, reconstruct  for  him  the  past  he  can  not 
remember  ?  Should  not  the  first  history  a  child 
learns  be  his  own  ? 

The  play  and  talk  we  have  been  considering 
hint  to  us  how  this  end  may  be  attained.  The 
organization  of  the  child's  experience  not  only 
interprets  it  but  helps  him  to  remember  it. 
Other  games  take  further  steps  in  this  same 
direction.  Thus  in  The  Children  on  the  Tower 
Froebel  unites  all  the  plays  previously  learned, 
the  particular  gesture  associated  with  each  game 
being  repeated  when  that  game  is  referred  to. 
In  The  Little  Artist  he  indicates  how  familiar 


242  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

objects  may  be  roughly  drawn,  explaining  in  the 
commentary  that  "the  child  now  has  a  small 
world  within  him,  and  should  represent  this 
world  in  a  way  suited  to  his  strength/'  Through 
such  representation  all  that  life  has  taught  him 
is  made  to  "pass  in  review  before  his  soul/' 
Finally,  the  Mother-Play  as  a  whole  preserves  for 
the  child  the  history  of  his  life.  The  infant  edu- 
cated in  obedience  to  its  wise  suggestions,  and 
grown  to  a  child  six  years  old,  sees  himself  and 
his  past  in  its  pictures,  and  understands  himself 
through  his  mother's  explanation  of  them.  In 
one  picture  he  is  making  a  basket  for  papa ;  in 
another  he  is  calling  the  chickens ;  in  still  an- 
other he  is  trying  to  grasp  the  moon.  Into  the 
general  history  of  childhood  each  mother  may 
weave  the  history  of  her  own  child,  and,  guided 
by  Froebel,  teach  him  how  to  pause  in  life  that 
he  may  collect  the  results  of  living. 

The  principle  of  concentric  instruction  has  of 
late  years  excited  a  great  and  growing  interest. 
This  form  of  education  selects  some  theme  which 
appeals  to  the  imagination  of  the  pupil,  and  re- 
lates all  the  different  school  exercises  to  this  cen- 
tral topic.  Thus  in  a  European  school  of  the 
third  grade,  described  by  Dr.  Klemm,  everything 
done  was  in  organic  connection  with  the  story  of 
Robinson  Crusoe.     The   children  made  pots  of 


VORTICAL  EDUCATION.  243 

clay  like  Robinson,  wove  baskets  like  Robinson, 
and,  in  imitation  of  this  hero,  fashioned  rude  fur- 
niture, ladders,  fish-hooks,  anchors,  and  sails; 
geography  was  learned  by  molding  maps  in  the 
sand  and  tracing  Crusoe's  journeys ;  the  compo- 
sitions written  on  slates  had  his  exploits  for  their 
subjects,  and  even  arithmetical  problems  were  in 
some  way  connected  with  his  experiences.* 

That  the  practice  of  the  kindergarten  is  in 
accord  with  the  principle  of  concentric  education 
will,  it  is  hoped,  be  evident  from  the  illustrations 
given.  A  brief  summary  of  the  process  of  devel- 
opment indicated  may,  however,  help  to  define  its 
idea. 

I.  The  point  of  departure  is  generally  some 
actual  experience  of  the  children. 

II.  This  experience,  together  with  its  causal 
presuppositions,  is  reproduced  in  pantomime. 

III.  The  pantomime  is  interpreted  by  word 
and  music. 

IV.  The  dramatized  experience  is  shown  in  a 
picture. 

V.  In  the  picture  the  child  not  only  beholds 
the  fact  or  process  dramatized,  but  also  contem- 
plates himself  in  the  act  of  dramatizing  it.  In 
other  words,  the  picture  is  a  mirror  wherein  he 
sees  himself  playing. 

*  European  Schools,  pp.  185-192. 


244  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

VI.  Conversations  on  the  subjects  illustrated 
in  the  play  bring  its  entire  circle  of  activities 
under  the  focus  of  consciousness. 

VII.  Stories  and  poems  having  a  related  con- 
tent are  used  to  deepen  and  spiritualize  the  cen- 
tral idea  embodied  in  each  play. 

VIII.  Pictures  presenting  the  subject  of  the 
play  in  a  truly  artistic  form  are  hung  upon  the 
walls  of  the  kindergarten,  and  create  a  spiritual 
environment  from  which  the  child  draws  spirit- 
ual food. 

IX.  The  child  is  encouraged  to  reproduce,  with 
the  kindergarten  gifts  and  occupations,  the  facts 
and  processes  illustrated  in  his  games.  Actively 
recreating  his  experiences,  he  both  interprets 
them  to  himself  and  stamps  upon  them  his  own 
individuality. 

X.  Related  games  are  thrown  into  a  series 
and  played  in  sequence. 

XI.  Each  circle  of  experiences,  pantomimes, 
songs,  pictures,  stories,  and  poems,  is  organized 
into  a  living  and  developing  unity  by  recurrences 
to  the  original  experience  and  play  from  which 
such  circle  has  been  evolved.* 

*  It  may  seem  that  I  am  describing  rather  what  ought  to  be 
than  what  is.  The  following  additional  extract  from  the  article 
already  quoted  will  show  that  in  Frau  Schrader's  Kindergarten, 
the  ideal  is  at  least  approximately  realized : 

"  Let  us  trace  how  this  method  of  introducing  the  children 


VORTICAL  EDUCATION.  245 

If  I  may  venture  to  criticise  the  ordinary  pro- 
cess of  concentric  instruction,  I  should  say  that 
its  chief  defect  is  lack  of  clear  insight  in  the 
choice  of  its  themes.    These  themes  furnish  what 

to  life  around  them  was  continued  with  those  from  four  to  six 
years  of  age.  These  were  occupied  once  or  twice  a  week  in 
gardening  a  plot  of  ground  belonging  to  them.  Here  many 
of  the  plants  which  were  to  furnish  subject-matter  for  their  ob- 
servation were  sown,  and  carefully  tended  throughout  the  spring 
and  summer.  They  also  became  practically  acquainted  with  a 
few  industrial  processes,  such  as  they  could  take  part  in.  For 
instance,  when  'wheat*  was  being  especially  considered,  the 
children  enjoyed  the  fun  of  actually  reaping  the  wheat  they  had 
helped  to  sow  in  the  spring  in  the  plot  of  ground  common  to  all. 
They  bound  it  in  sheaves  and  carried  it  in  triumph  into  their 
schoolroom,  where  each  child  received  a  stalk  or  two  with  the 
full  ear ;  and,  while  sitting  quietly  round  the  table,  they  held 
the  stalks  upright  and  close  together,  until  the  children  could 
very  nearly  picture  to  themselves  a  cornfield  which  had  taken 
root  indoors.  The  kindergartnerin  then  led  them  by  a  series  of 
self-made  experiences  to  an  appreciation  of  such  facts  as — 

1.  "  The  height  of  the  stalk.  (This  was  very  simply  and  well 
brought  out  by  a  story  being  told  of  how  the  kindergartnerin 
had  played  at  hide-and-seek  with  a  little  boy  in  a  cornfield  dur- 
ing the  summer  holidays.) 

2.  "  The  hollowness  of  the  stalk.  The  children  learned  this 
by  blowing  soap-bubbles  through  the  straw. 

3.  *'  The  presence  of  knots  in  the  stalk.  (This  experience  was 
likewise  gained  while  blowing  soap-bubbles  ;  some  children  hav- 
ing been  allowed  to  break  the  straws  in  the  spaces  between  the 
knots,  they  found  they  could  not  use  them.) 

4.  ♦'  The  ear  of  corn  hangs  its  head.  Why  ?  (This  led  to  an 
examination  of  an  empty  and  a  full  ear.) 

5.  "  The  ear  is  a  great  house  in  which  there  are  many  rooms. 

6.  "  In  each  room  there  lives  a  single  little  grain. 

7.  **  Of  what  use  is  the  grain  !     (They  had  sown  it  in 


246  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

is  called  the  Gesinnungsstoff — i.  e.,  matter  ap- 
pealing to  sentiment  and  imagination.*  One 
effect  of  the  concentric  exercises  is,  or  should  be, 
to  deepen  the  influence  of  this  Gesinnungsstoff 


the  spring  ;  they  were  now  about  to  learn  its  use  experi- 
mentally.) 

*'  Another  day  the  corn  was  thrashed  in  the  garden,  the  chil- 
dren using  a  small  flail  in  turn.  The  grain  was  gathered  and 
separated  from  the  chaff  by  some  others.  Part  of  the  grain  was 
reserved  for  seed,  and  a  small  quantity  was  ground  by  the  chil- 
dren between  stones. 

"Another  day  flour  was  taken  and  pancakes  were  baked. 
The  children,  under  the  direction  of  an  older  person,  had  each 
something  to  do  in  the  process,  the  older  ones  learning  to  beat 
the  eggs  and  to  stir  the  flour,  while  the  younger  ones  ran  on 
little  errands.  At  last,  the  great  moment  having  arrived,  the 
company  sat  down  to  enjoy  the  feast.  Meanwhile  the  leading 
idea  was  carried  through  the  various  occupations  somewhat  in 
the  following  manner : 

"The  elder  children  were  *  pricking'  on  paper  the  ear  of 
corn  or  the  mill  which  ground  the  corn ;  the  younger  children 
only  outlined  the  millstones.  Again,  a  scythe  was  sewn  in  col- 
ored silk  or  wool.  When  stick  and  ring  laying  was  the  order  of 
the  day,  then  the  cart  which  carried  the  sacks  of  corn  was  rep- 
resented, etc.  The  appropriate  games  were  The  Farmer,  The 
Miller,  The  Mill,  etc. 

"  Finally  a  story,  or  simple  piece  of  poetry,  summing  up  the 
children's  experiences,  was  spoken  or  sung  to  the  kindergartner- 
in's  accompaniment  on  the  piano.  A  picture,  representing  the 
subject  from  an  artistic  point  of  view  (The  Sower,  by  L.  Richter), 
was  shown  and  enjoyed  as  a  resume  of  the  children's  experiences 
during  the  past  week  or  two.  There  was  nothing  in  either  the 
story  or  the  poem  which  was  foreign  to  their  experience." — 
Barnard's  Kindergarten  and  Child  Culture,  pp.  ^66>,  4^1, 

*  European  Schools,  L.  R,  Klemm,  Ph.  D.,  p.  185. 


VORTICAL  EDUCATION.  247 

upon  the  mind.  It  would  seem,  therefore,  that 
the  selection  of  suitable  themes  is  a  matter  of 
prime  import,  and  that  serious  injury  may  be 
done  the  mind  by  developing  concentric  exercises 
around  facts  which  belong  not  to  the  center  but 
the  circumference  of  thought. 

Froebel  solves  this  problem  by  using  as  Ge- 
sinnungsstoff  the  symbolic  aspects  of  nature  and 
the  ethical  ideals  embodied  in  human  institu- 
tions. His  plan  of  education  is,  therefore,  not 
merely  concentric  but  spiral,  and  not  merely 
spiral  but  vortical.  Its  physical  symbol  is  the 
inverted  cone,  the  point  upon  which  the  whole 
scheme  revolves  being  to  fill  the  emotions  with  a 
rational  content,  while  the  widening  and  ascend- 
ing circles  represent  the  progressive  development 
within  the  conscious  intellect  of  the  ideals  which 
originally  floated  unconscious  in  the  depths  of 
feeling. 

Pestalozzi  claims  that  the  center  from  which 
education  radiates  is  sense-perception  {AnscTiau- 
ung).  Froebel  claims  that  this  center  is  Gemilth, 
a  word  explained  by  Hegel  to  mean  the  "  unde- 
veloped, indefinite  totality  of  spiritual  being.'* 
We  may  approximately  translate  Gemilth  by 
heart,  and  affirm  that  with  Froebel  the  pivot 
upon  which  true  education  turns  is  the  regener- 
ation of  the  affections.     Long  before,  Froebel, 


218  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

that  great  philosopher  whose  books  "  make  such 
havoc  of  all  our  originalities/^  had  given  expres- 
sion to  the  same  thought,  and  no  better  state- 
ment of  the  aim  of  the  Mother-Play  can  ever  be 
made  than  is  contained  in  the  following  passage 
from  the  second  book  of  Plato's  Laws : 

^^  As  to  wisdom  and  true  and  fixed  opinions, 
happy  is  the  man  who  acquires  them,  even  when 
declining  in  years ;  and  he  who  possesses  them, 
and  the  blessings  which  are  contained  in  them, 
is  a  perfect  man.  Now,  I  mean  by  education  that 
training  which  is  given  by  suitable  habits  to  the 
first  instincts  of  virtue  in  children ;  when  pleas- 
ure, and  friendship,  and  pain,  and  hatred,  are 
rightly  implanted  in  souls  not  yet  capable  of 
understanding  the  nature  of  them,  and  who  find 
them,  after  they  have  attained  reason,  to  be  in 
harmony  with  her.  This  harmony  of  the  soul, 
when  perfected,  is  virtue  ;  but  the  particular 
training  in  respect  of  pleasure  and  pain,  which 
leads  you  always  to  hate  what  you  ought  to  hate 
and  love  what  you  ought  to  love,  from  the  begin- 
ning to  the  end,  may  be  separated  off ;  and,  in  my 
view,  will  be  rightly  called  education.'^  * 

With  insight  into  FroebeFs  aim  comes  appre- 
ciation of  his  symbolic  method  ;  for,  while  we  rec- 

*  Laws,  Book  II,  Jowett's  translation,  p.  222. 


VORTICAL  EDUCATION.  249 

ognize  that  the  seeds  of  truth  will  germinate  only 
in  soil  which  has  been  "  made  fertile  with  right 
emotion/^  we  must  also*  admit  that  there  is  no 
"  feeling  worthy  the  name  but  is  as  dew  around 
an  idea/^  If,  therefore,  we  wish  to  make  children 
feel,  we  must  give  them  something  to  feel  about, 
and  in  order  to  educate  the  heart  we  must  illu- 
minate the  imagination.  In  the  childhood  of  the 
race  the  premonitions  of  reason  were  uttered  in 
symbol  and  myth.  The  history  of  the  individual 
repeats  that  of  the  race,  and  through  typical  facts 
and  poetic  analogies  we  may  waken  in  the  heart 
of  childhood  those  truths  which  are  the  "foun- 
tain light  of  all  our  day  " — "  the  master  light  of 
all  our  seeing  '^ : 

"  Truths  that  wake 

To  perish  never ; 
Which  neither  listlessness  nor  mad  endeavor, 

Nor  man,  nor  boy, 
Nor  all  that  is  at  enmity  with  joy, 
Can  utterly  abolish  or  destroy." 

Reverting  for  the  last  time  to  Froebel's  defi- 
nition of  man  as  Gliedganzes,  we  ought  now  to 
perceive  clearly  that  it  implies  two  apparently 
antagonistic  yet  really  complementary  ideas. 
The  individual  can  develop  only  through  his 
own  self-activity.  The  individual  can  develop 
only  by  appropriating  the  experience  of  man- 
kind.   The  solution  of  the  paradox  is  found  in  a 


V- 


250  SYMBOLIC  EDUCATION. 

development  incited  by  generic  ideals.  Siicli  a 
development  testifies  to  the  freedom  of  man  as 
well  as  to  the  solidarity  of  mankind;  for  ideals 
are  not  external  to  the  mind,  but  products  of  its 
own  activity,  and  through  obeying  them  man  be- 
comes his  own  creator. 

True  freedom  is  not  a  dower,  but  an  achieve- 
ment ;  and  insight  into  the  ideal  nature  of  man 
justifies  both  the  long  agony  of  history  and  the 
ignorance,  impotence,  and  bondage  wherein  the 
career  of  each  individual  begins.  "Man  is  the 
worm  born  to  bring  forth  the  angelic  butterfly/' 
and  in  the  very  fact  that  by  nature  he  is  prone 
upon  the  earth  may  be  read  the  prophecy  that  te 
shall  one  day  expand  his  wings  freely  in  the  free 
air.  His  destiny  could  never  be  realized  unless 
contradicted  at  every  point  by  his  original  state. 
He  is  born  a  slave  that  he  may  conquer  freedom 
by  breaking  the  chains  of  ignorance  and  throw- 
ing off  the  shackles  of  sin.* 

*  In  his  first  aspect,  as  child  of  Nature,  man  must  be  con- 
ceived as  fettered  and  chained,  ruled  by  impulse  and  dominated 
by  sense ;  not  yet  awakened  to  consciousness,  he  is  a  being  of 
sense  and  of  physical  life.  In  his  final  aspect  as  a  child  of  God 
man  must  be  conceived  as  free  ;  he  is  not  only  capable  of  self- 
consciousness  and  destined  to  realize  this  capability,  but  he  al- 
ready possesses  a  prophetic  knowledge  of  his  nature  and  des- 
tiny ;  hence  he  is  a  being  who  reasons  and  reflects,  and  of  his 
own  free  will  seeks  the  highest  unity  of  life.  In  his  inter- 
mediate condition  as  child  of  man  he  is  to  be  conceived  as  a 


VORTICAL  EDUCATION.  251 

Science  has  become  poetic  since  she  has 
learned  to  recognize  in  the  process  of  evolution 
the  travail  of  a  world  pregnant  with  the  ideal 
of  freedom.  The  problem  of  all  religions  is  how 
to  escape  from  that  slavery  which  the  prescient 
soul  knows  to  be  contrary  to  its  true  nature. 
The  clew  to  history  is  "the  progress  of  souls 
into  the  consciousness  of  freedom."  The  ascend- 
ing rounds  of  individual  development  are  marked 
by  clearer  insight  into  what  freedom  implies,  and 
by  more  concrete  realization  of  freedom  in  the 
acts  of  the  will.  The  conscious  aim  of  education 
should  be  to  aid  the  self -emancipation  of  the  pu- 
pil by  inflaming  his  soul  with  the  ideals  symbol- 
ized in  nature,  revealed  in  history,  incarnated  in 
institutions,  and  always  and  everywhere  inciting 
the  struggle  through  which  the  worm  mounts  to 
man  and  the  man  to  God. 

being  who,  in  chains  and  shackles,  yet  struggles  for  freedom ; 
who  in  isolation  strives  for  union,  and  who  in  thought  is  ever 
seeking  relief  from  the  oppression  of  particulars  in  the  unity  of 
consciousness.  Hence  the  child  of  man  strives,  aspires,  and 
loves,  and  under  the  pain  of  conflict  beats  the  joy  of  his  hope," 
— Padagogik  des  Kindergartens^  p,  9  {free  translation). 


THE    EKD, 


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